Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh will reunite with Ek Villain co-star Sidharth Malhotra in Marjaavaan where he is pitted against the latter in a situation similar to the 2014 film that additionally featured Kamaal R Khan. Nonetheless, there is one major change in Milap Zaveri's Marjaavaan – Riteish is a dwarf.

Riteish has said that it was physically challenging for him to shoot standings on his knees. Directed by Milap, the film likewise stars Tara Sutaria and Rakul Preet Singh. Riteish old Mid Day in an interview, "We had to film every shot from five different angles. Besides being on my knees all the time, I had several restrictions. I remember shooting for a sequence that comes right before the intermission in which I am required to stand in the muck.

Once the director said cut, I was covered in muck, right from my knees to the thighs. I had to wait in that state for my next shot. In such scenarios, the performance is not the challenge. But, sitting in dirty, wet clothes for three nights becomes difficult and irritating."

He likewise discussed figuring out how to comprehend his character: "Rakesh Mahadkar [his character in Ek Villain] is, the boy next door, easily forgotten in a crowd. But Vishnu in Marjaavaan is a 180-degree turnaround from that. He is vertically challenged, but larger-than-life, arrogant and brash," he says, adding that empathy is the key to portraying troubled characters. "I try to find the emotional core. I need to understand why he is the way he is."

Riteish's character has been enlivened by the fifth avatar of Lord Vishnu, Vamana, and this association is likewise referenced in one of the lines in the trailer. Milap had before said about the role, "We decided to make his villain three-foot-tall but larger-than-life with a wicked sense of humour. His Vishnu is arrogant and thinks he is invincible."

The producer likewise discussed correlations with Shah Rukh Khan's character in Zero: "Shah Rukh played a smaller version of himself. We storyboarded the screenplay and had a diminutive person (sic) honorable man on the sets for Riteish to imbibe certain mannerisms and ensure he didn't go overboard or underplay the physical aspects of the character."