Remember DK Bose & Loondry? Abhinay Deo Shares How 'Delhi Belly' Catchwords Were Conceptualised

"Chacha Oh Bh*****waley Chacha. Rest kariye, varna Rest in Peace ho jaoge!"

This dialogue from Mirzapur is one of the most popular ones that fans use in their daily lives even today.

Cut to, ten years ago.

The mob was protesting, attacking cinema halls, and had even filed court cases against the ¡°obscene¡± dialogues and content of a movie called Delhi Belly, an Abhinay Deo directorial.

"Be*****d agar phir haath lagaya na toh tere ta*** kaat kar jhumke bana dunga"

"Tujhe kya lagta hai, mere sar pe bandook rakhne se, meri g***d maarne ki permission mil gayi tujhe¡­ be*****d"

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The punchlines were massively popular among the youth for they displayed a raw sense of humour that every Indian could relate to. It spoke the language they speak. Who would have imagined that years later, this language will be well accepted at least with the advent of OTTs!

In a tete-e-tete with Indiatimes, director Abhinay Deo says when he first read the script, his first thought was, ¡°Who is this mad man who has written it, and what was he smoking.¡±

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The second thought was, ¡°I have to do this, come what may¡±.

The third thought on his mind was, ¡°Will I be able to release the film ever in India?¡± Deo says that he was aware of the backlash that the film would get.

Ten years later, there are some words, phrases and dialogues that are etched in the hearts of people. For instance, ¡°Sir, ye toh tatti hai¡± is a dialogue that people still use as a meme. The dialogue, Deo reveals, was written by Akshat Verma. He also adds that ¡°loondry¡±, a word mispronounced for laundry was not a part of the script. Narrating the story behind it, Deo says,

¡°He mispronounced it as loondry in the rehearsals. The minute he did that, I told him, ¡®listen whatever you said just say that in the shot as well¡¯¡±. He went like, ¡®no, no, sorry, it¡¯s laundry', and I told him, ¡®nahi, abhi tu loondry hi bol kyuki ye bohot funny hai¡¯ (Just say laundry because it¡¯s incredibly funny). I didn¡¯t know it would catch people¡¯s fancy, to be honest.¡±

With that, Deo also revealed an interesting story behind DK Bose, the hit song that twisted a name into an expletive, the Gaali which was given a musical twist.

¡°I, Akshat and Ram Sampath were recording the music, and I wanted a song for the chase sequence. We spent the whole day discussing, and came up with three-four tracks, but I bounced all of them. That¡¯s when Ram said ¡®give me a hook line¡¯.

"The only word I knew I wanted was Bhaag, because that¡¯s what suited the scene. It had got really late at night and we were having dinner, and we started discussing our school time when we would abuse but use a word that sounds like it. For instance, I would call somebody, ¡®You are a basket¡¯. We all knew what it meant.

"That¡¯s when Akshat told me that when he was in school in Delhi, he and his friends would call people DK Bose, and we both started laughing. Ram suddenly picked that up and went in. Half an hour later, he came up with Bhaag Bhaag DK Bose.¡±

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When Aamir listened to the song, his first reaction was, ¡°Oh my god. You guys will destroy my career. But what the hell! It¡¯s such a brilliant track, you must do it.¡±

Deo¡¯s favourite song, like most of us, is Saigal Blues. ¡°Bhaag DK Bose, is of course a sensational and mind-blowing track, but Saigal blues is a wonderful idea conceptually.¡±

The film indeed broke so many boundaries and challenged several norms -- it had expletives, it didn¡¯t have a song and dance sequence, it also didn¡¯t have an interval ¡°because it was written like that,¡± says Deo, and it was shot in English and later dubbed in Hindi.

¡°We wanted to keep it real. That¡¯s the language that the youth spoke. So, why change it? We knew the film was not for the mass. It was for the metro-centric youth, which spoke the language at home.

Aamir was a bit skeptical. He even suggested that we should make it in Hindi. But if we did that, we would have to change 90 percent of the jokes. The script was in English. I think he was convinced later and agreed to do it in English."

The question that we have been wanting an answer to -- Will there be a Delhi Belly sequel?

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Abhinay Deo says, ¡°I have thought about it, but Akshay as of now, doesn¡¯t have an idea for a script. I hope he is listening to this, so he goes and writes a kickass script for the sequel.¡±

Not many people know Abhinay Deo rejected 47 scripts in five years before he did Irrfan Khan starrer Blackmail. He says the dark comedy genre is what has always interested him.

But back then, almost half of the industry was not interested in the film. Deo told us that Akshat Verma came to India and reached out to almost half of the industry, which rejected the movie.

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¡°Akshay and Jim Furgele sent the script to Aamir Khan¡¯s house as well. It was added to the pile of (maybe) 200 other scripts that were sent to him. It was very random that Kiran picked this one out of the lot and started reading when Aamir was getting ready for an event that they were both supposed to attend. She was reading and laughing. That¡¯s when Aamir asked her what she was reading. They both forgot about the event and read the entire script. Next morning, he called up Akshat and Aamir said that he would produce the film.¡±

As we conclude the interview, Abhinay Deo tells us that he had a real-life Delhi Belly experience the night before, and he had been hoping that it doesn¡¯t stretch to July 1, the day the film is completing 10 years of release. As I quip and tell him, ¡°It would have been a wonderful way to celebrate,¡± he laughs off adding, ¡°Not for me.¡±

Starring a stellar cast of Imran Khan, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Vir as, Poorna Jagannathan, Shenaz Treasurywala and Vijay Raaz among others, Delhi Belly is a story of young boys, bachelors, who unwittingly fall into the life of crime with Mafia boss. The situational comedy that ensues is a treat to watch. There's toilet humour and existential crisis. As the tagline says, 'Shit happens'.

Ten years later, Delhi Belly remains to be a benchmark for dark comedies in India and an accurate representation of India's milleanials.