DNA (April 4, 2016)
Prachi Desai flew to Hyderabad to meet with Naureen — Mohammed Azharuddin’s first wife — to understand her life account in detail, before Azhar shooting began, to get under the skin of the character. The actress cut herself away from the entire world including her family, for almost 100 days because Naureen is like that — reserved and an introvert. She did a lot of research to help her portray the character of Azhar’s wife convincingly, including speaking to both sides of the family. The first time Prachi and Naureen met, they hit it off and spent hours chatting over over tea and cup cakes! There after Prachi spent four hours everyday with Naureen. The love story of Naureen and Azhar moved Prachi and helped her understand the wife’s part in her celebrity husband’s life.
In fact Prachi and Naureen share a striking resemblance to one another in reality. Naureen has become so close to Prachi that she’s given her a nickname too — Prats. Prachi says, “I’m just humbled by Naureen’s gesture. She is such a down-to-earth soul and I wonder why destiny was so unkind to her. We bonded well and I really look upto her for the strong woman she is. I’m in touch with her till this date and every time I’m in Hyderabad I make it a point to visit her. sets. Naureen’s narrated all her childhood memories and it was refreshing to hear about them.”