‘We had a picture of bullet-ridden body as reference’:John Abraham

When a film is adapted from a novel, which in turn has been inspired from real life events, chances are the lead stars will leave no media spotlight to declare their meticulous research to get under the skin of their characters.

If infamous cases of stars meddling with a director’s vision come to mind here, you wouldn’t be off the mark.

But in the case of ‘Shootout at Wadala’, director Sanjay Gupta appears to be a lucky man.

With a star cast that includes A-listers John Abraham, Anil Kapoor and Manoj Bajpayee, not to forget Tusshar Kapoor and Sonu Sood, the confidence in Gupta’s vision of a chapter in Mumbai’s underworld saga was evident with the actors, who were in Dubai earlier on Thursday to promote the film.

The bestseller novel in question is Hussain Zaidi’s, ‘From Dongri to Dubai’, which chronicles six decades of Mumbai’s mafia, which was also featured in Gupta’s ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’.

Anil Kapoor however, clarified that the film, despite being based on the Zaidi novel, was not shot here.

“There were no sequences shot in Dubai, in fact, there are no references as such of the city in the film,” he said. “The entire chapter has been removed in the scripting stage.”

The actor, who stated that he plays his first ever Muslim character on-screen, said: “Sanjay has done such a fabulous adaption from the novel that the audience will sit riveted.

“Yes, it is based on the novel, but ‘SAW’ has been created for a Bollywood audience, with some song and dance and gripping action to appeal to the masses.”

Speaking about his character, the dreaded Manya Surve, Abraham said: “I have read the book ‘SAW’ is based on, but what was more important was Sanjay Gupta’s vision for Manya, who I play.

“I have worked with him on ‘Zinda’, which has been one of the finest films he’s made, with Sanjay Dutt, and what you will ultimately see on screen is his integrity and honesty.”

When asked how he prepared for the role, the actor said: “Visually, we had just two passport size photos of Manya Surve, including one of his bullet-ridden body, after the encounter.

“But we met quite a few people, including police officers, who were involved the encounter.”

Manoj Bajpaye, who also claimed to have read the book in question, stated that despite doing the homework, he didn’t feel the need to do so.

“For an actor, the screenplay and essentially, the director’s imagination and vision is what remains vital. If I had taken what I had from the book and not followed Sanjay’s lead, it could have even ruined the film,” he said.

So will the film appeal to an audience at large?

“Let’s call it part docu-drama, part commercial masala film,” laughed Tusshar Kapoor. “But ultimately, it will prove to be a crowd pleaser.”

‘Shootout at Wadala’ is slated for release on May 2 across UAE cinemas.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.