When Zoya got drunk before first day of Luck By Chance shoot

Zoya Akhtar’s directorial debut Luck By Chance received tremendous acclaim upon its release, and the filmmaker reveals she was so nervous before the first day of shoot that she got drunk.

Released in 2009, the drama chronicled the story of an aspiring actor and his girlfriend who, is a struggling actor. The film starred Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sensharma, Hrithik Roshan among others.

When asked what her reaction was before the first day of shoot, Zoya said, “The day before the shoot of my first film, it was the time I got really nervous. I wasn’t nervous till then and then I just got drunk. That was it. I was fine the next morning.” She was speaking at a special event along with acclaimed director Cary Fukunaga at the ongoing 18th Jio MAMI Mumbai film festival. For Cary, the experience of shooting all his films is like going back to school.

“For a lot of my projects I move to new places so not everyone of the crew that I am familiar with can come with me. It is like your first day of school again. Hundreds of people staring at you, expecting you to know what you’re doing,” he said. 

“Of course you’ve an idea but you’re hoping things will just come together. So, there is a lot of anxiety, knowing everyone is looking at you. You better say something, and hopefully it is smart,” he added.

The filmmaker, who boasts of several acclaimed projects in his kitty like True Detective, Jane Eyre and Beasts of no Nation, said in his head he thought he was giving motivational speeches to the crew, only to realise later that they were merely some technical commands. Zoya recalled a conversation she had with collaborator and filmmaker Reema Kagti before shooting her first film.