Mukesh Chhabra

Mukesh Chhabra is a Mumbaibased casting director acting workshop director and actor who has cast several actors for movies including director Vikas Bahls Chillar Party Anurag Kashyaps Gangs of Wasseypur Abhishek Kapoors Kai Po Che and Nikhil Advanis DDay Chhabra graduated from Delhi University with an acting diploma from the Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts He completed a sixyear acting and teaching stint with the Theatre in Education Company TIE affiliated with the National School of DramaNSD Chhabra came to Mumbai in 2007 and worked as an Assistant Casting Director before setting up his own casting company His first film as independent casting director was the small budget film Chintuji His casting for the film Chillar Party won him accolades based on which director Anurag Kashyap engaged him for the casting of his crime thriller Gangs of Wasseypur and also its sequel Subsequently Chhabra did the casting for films of different genres like Kai Po Che Shahid Chennai Express Jai Ho Hasee To Phasee Mastram and Dday Apart from films hes also done casting for TVCs In his career Chhabra has employed several unconventional casting methods For example he spotted the budding actor Irfan Khan who played the character Fatka in the film Chillar Party on the streets of Mumbai Chhabras democratic style of auditioning has previously invited nuisance value from potential actors Actor Rajkumar Yadav now Rajkumar Rao was chosen to play one of the leads for the film Kai Po Che only on Chhabras insistence Raos talent in the film won him critical acclaim and later Chhabra cast him in Shahid as the leading man