New Delhi, July 2 (IANS): Vicky Kaushal may be earning plaudits for doing justice to his role in "Masaan', but director Neeraj Ghaywan says he had his doubts before casting him as one of the leads in the film.

"Vicky and I go a long way. Both of us started our career at the same time with 'Gangs of Wasseypur' as ADs (Assistant directors)... that was our first job. For this film, I had something else in mind because I wanted Rajkumar Rao," Ghaywan said at an event here, adding that he "was very particular about getting all the nuances about culture and looks right and he had inhibitions to cast Vicky".

Ghaywan spoke about his film at the inaugural ceremony of five-day Jagran Film Festival, which was opened by "Masaan" here on Wednesday.

The movie follows the stories of four people from a small town and how they fit into the moralities. Vicky plays role of a lower caste man, who burns dead bodies for a living and how his life takes a drastic change when he falls for a girl from upper caste.

The director, who already has two international prizes in his account for his directorial debut film, noted that the audition tape change his mind. Since then, there was no looking back.

"I saw the audition and was blown away by it. The kind of effort he has put in and hard work to get the part right is worth mentioning. There was a point where I derived my director notes from him as he became more the character than the director,” said the director.

The movie, set in Varanasi, won the Promising Future Prize and the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) Award.

After making a mark internationally, the film is all set to release in India on July 24.