Pradhuman Singh was just a regular handsome guy, “as successful or not as successful as anybody else.” But life has not been the same for him ever since he was cast as the lookalike of Osama Bin laden in the comedy movie Tere Bin laden in 2010.
The movie is not a conventional sequel or a spin-off of the original because it does not pick up from where Tere Bin laden ended. In fact, the movie shows Singh not as Noori, but as an aspirant singer Pabbi Singh, who goes to Mumbai. “Manish Paul, in the movie is struggling to make it as an director. These two people meet each other and Manish’s character hatches a brilliant idea of making a movie starring Pabbi Singh as a lookalike of Osama. The plan was to make him a star by his face,” he said.
The movie that they make is a fictional version of Tere Bin laden, he told us. like in reality, the movie in the movie, becomes successful and they want to make a sequel. But it gets canned because by that time, Osama was already dead. “While USA claimed that they killed Osama, people were demanding proof of death. What happens when these two decide to make a movie on the confusion of whether or not he is alive, is the story of this movie,” he said.
One would expect Singh to be recognised in public as the Osama lookalike but he told us otherwise. “Nobody recognises me. I do not wear a turban and do not have that long a beard, so there are no chances of identifying me. Without them, I am just another regular good-looking guy,” he laughed. In fact there have been times when he has gone up to people and told them that he was the guy who had played the lookalike in the movie. “The reaction that I got were priceless because people somehow have the notion that the guy who played the Noori would be 45 to 60 years old, be from Pakistan and not capable of speaking English,” he pointed out.
It was his dream to be an actor but he never had the guts to go to Mumbai. But one day he found himself on his way to the city. “It was as if God pushed me,” he butted in.
No one in his family knew he was doing such a role until the trailers were out. “After my mother saw the trailer I told her it was me and she was really happy. She supports me a lot,” he wrapped up.