remake of the Dominique Deruddere-directed Belgian Dutch-language satirical comedy Everybody's Famous! (2001). The original was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 73rd Academy Awards, and follows the relationship between a father and her teenage girl, whom he forces to be a singer. Fanney Khan was directed by debutant Atul Manjrekar, who had previously directed television advertisements and was a close associate of Mehra. Other than Kapoor and Mehra, members of the cast and crew were not finalized when the production was announced. Musical recording and other preparations began on 20 June 2016, and auditions were initiated for the role of two teenage characters. Prernaa Arora of KriArj Entertainment wanted Aishwarya Rai to play the character and directly approached her. The announcement also declared that the role of the pop singer would be played by Rai. Arjun N. Kapoor of KriArj conveyed that the film dealt with a father-daughter relationship and said, "Fanney Khan is a very emotional story that needs to be told." The film marked the third collaboration between Kapoor and Rai after Taal (1999) and Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai (2000). In August 2017, reports suggested that R. Madhavan was being considered to play the romantic interest of Rai's character. Arora declined to acknowledge the rumors, adding that she couldn't confirm the news before anything was decided. She stated that Mehra and Manjrekar were searching for a suited actor to play the character up to that time. On 31 August 2017, Madhavan stated that he couldn't play a role in the film owing to conflicting schedules with his other films. On the same day, Mehra publicly revealed that Rajkummar Rao would play the role opposite Rai through his Twitter handle. Rao stated that he would attend workshops and readings in preparation after filming for the web-series Bose: Dead/Alive in Poland. Mehra initially approached Kapoor in 2013 with the idea of a remake and gave him a DVD of Everybody's Famous!. At the time, Kapoor did not take Mehra's request seriously. During the production of Mirzya, which was directed by Mehra and starred Kapoor's son Harshvardhan Kapoor, he was approached again by the film's financer and distributor to consider the proposal. Kapoor then watched the original, and realized that he was foolish in not agreeing to do the film earlier. Mehra and Kapoor then procured the rights to remake Everybody's Famous! from its makers. He played the