Vir Hirani, son of filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, has officially made his acting debut as the lead in Pritam and Pedro, the JioHotstar comedy-crime series that also marks his father's debut as a series creator. He plays Pritam, a gifted young hacker who keeps turning up at a police station for deeply personal reasons — he's trying to recover his late grandfather's stolen tape recorder, which holds the last recording of his grandmother's voice. Arshad Warsi plays Pedro, a grumpy, old-school Goan police inspector who doesn't trust tech and algorithms. The mismatched-partners premise gives the show its central comic and emotional engine, rounded out by a strong supporting cast including Vikrant Massey, Boman Irani, and Mona Singh.
Vir and Arshad have actually known each other for over two decades. Back in 2003, a young Vir appeared in Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. as Circuit's on-screen son — affectionately nicknamed Short Circuit — in a brief but memorable climax scene where he sat on Arshad's lap for a family photograph.
Arshad himself confirmed the connection when the news broke, reminiscing that Vir had “literally grown up in front of my eyes” since those days on the Munna Bhai set. He also shared a cheeky, affectionate note on social media about how much his old co-star had grown up, and Vir reportedly responded with visible emotion about the moment coming full circle after 24 years.
According to his father, Vir wasn’t part of the original plan for Pritam and Pedro. He was in London studying when casting began. Instead of going through his father, he went straight to the casting office after learning that the production was looking for someone to portray the tech-savvy hacker role. Interestingly, Vikrant Massey was initially supposed to play the part, but he ended up playing the antagonist in the show, which gave Vir the opportunity.
Before landing the role, Vir had already been building a quieter résumé in theatre, earning praise for his stage performance in Letters of Suresh, directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. The show’s creative team reportedly watched his stage work and reviewed self-shot audition scenes before casting him. His only other screen credits before this were minor childhood appearances, including Yoon Hota Toh Kya Hota (2006), Apna Apna Andaz, Doosri Kaksha, and The Doctor Will See You Now (all 2019).
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