Mumbai : Bollywood ace directors Rajkumar Hirani, Anurag Kashyap, Imtiaz Ali, Abhishek Kapoor, Kabir Khan, Nikhil Advani, Akshat Verma, Nishikant Kamat, Navdeep Singh, Suneil Shetty, Aditya Pancholi, National Award winner actor Rajkummar Rao and the young heartthrobs of B-town-Sushant Singh Rajput, 
Sidharth Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor, Aditi Rao Hydari and well-known lyricist Irshad Kamil came forward in full force at the inauguration of the leading casting director, Mukesh Chhabra’s studio, the ‘Mukesh Chhabra Casting Company.’
The 32 year old Chhabra who became the most sought after casting director with successful films like Gangs Of Wasseypur 1 & 2, Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar, Highway, D-Day, Kai Po Che, National Award winner films, Chillar Party and Shahid, has taken a big step ahead by launching a casting studio which aims to offer acting and casting solutions under one roof.
The one-of-a-kind casting studio has space to audition 50 actors at a time. It has three audition rooms and a dedicated hall for conducting theatre workshops.
Chhabra, who is known to have introduced many new talents in Hindi films says, “It was my dream to have a casting studio which is accessible to all, where any talented actor can just walk in and give an audition.” “This dream wouldn’t have become a reality without the unflinching support of all the directors who believed in me and of course, my dedicated team” he adds.
Chhabra who worked as an actor and teacher with ‘Theatre in Education’ company, which is affiliated with National School of Drama (NSD) will conduct weekend workshops and monthly workshops of 10 days at his studio. The monthly workshop will have 20 students in each batch. “Apart from my film workshops, I will also be conducting acting workshops with new talent which will be free of cost for the initial few months” he adds.
The firstweekend-acting-workshop will be conducted by theatre actor Manoj Bajpai. The Gangs Of Wasseypur actor says, “Acting is not about acting. Acting is about 
being. And that is what will be the focus of my workshop.” “I am not an easy teacher and my expectations are pretty high” he warns.
Congratulating Chhabra he says, “Mukesh is revolutionizing the whole casting business. There was no culture of auditions and workshops. What he is doing is going to make the casting business transparent.”
“I always felt the need for such a studio where post auditions an actor could do some workshops and hone his/her skills and thus have planned such a set up” says Chhabra who has done acting workshops for films like Kai Po Che, Shahid, Aashiqui 2 and upcoming films Ek Villian, Hero and Fitoor and has mentored upcoming stars like Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Sushant Singh Rajput, Rajkummar Rao, Suraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty who will be making their debut in Nikhil Advani’s upcoming next, Hero.
Talking about the reason why he started the casting studio Mukesh Chhabra says, “I wanted to provide a creative platform to the new talent. If they are genuinely talented I will cast them and help them realise their acting dreams. Any aspiring actor can drop by for auditions from morning 10 to evening 8 evening at my casting studio.”
One of the busiest casting directors of the Hindi film industry, Chhabra is booked for the next one year and has an impressive line up of releases this year including Rajkumar Hirani’s P.K, and Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet, Ugly and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haidar and many more.
Quotes of Rajkumar Hirani, Anurag Kashyap, Imtiaz Ali, Suniel Shetty, Sidharth Malhotra, Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao .
Rajkumar Hirani who has worked with Chhabra in his most awaited next P.K says, “This is the first time I opted for a professional casting director and I am very happy with the result.Very few people have an eye to understand what the role is. Some people get you pretty faces. That is not good casting. And Mukesh has a great understanding of characters.”
Anurag Kashyap who has collaborated with Chhabra on Wasseypur 1 and 2, Bombay Velvet and Ugly says, “I feel much more relaxed with Mukesh around. I can give him any kind of brief and he will give me five options. This is the advantage of working with a good casting director.”
Imtiaz Ali who did Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar and Highway, with Chhabra says, “I don’t cast. Mukesh Chhabra does it for me. Its very convenient. Because of Mukesh casting has become a recognisable department in the film industry. He casts the right people and the film is better already.
Suniel Shetty says, “My daughter Athiya said ‘I feel much better having done a workshop with Mukesh Chhabra than probably having done the school in New York. I learnt more in the last few moths than a year in the school.
Sidharth Malhotra and Shraddha Kapoor who did an acting workshop with Mukesh Chhabra for Asshiqui 2 and Ek Villain were the first ones to arrive at the launch. Siddharth said, “We did workshop for Ek Villian. His method of training is very different. If you get a chance you should do a workshop with him before you do a film.” “He trains you well for the character. I know him from Teen Patti days. He makes his actors do crazy stuff” said Shraddha.
Rajkummar Rao says, “The way Mukesh conducts his auditions is unique. As an actor he makes you feel so comfortable in front at the camera. You don’t feel any pressure. He cast me in Shahid when I was very new in the industry. That’s the kind of the trust he has in his actors.”
Source : Lokesh Shastri