Apoorva Lakhia on why you should watch Shoot

A mammoth film is coming your way in the form of Shootout at Lokhandwala. Based on 'true rumors' of a real life incident, this film looks to be promising in terms of its realism, cast and execution. We spoke to the executioner umm... director Apoorva Lakhia in an exclusive IndiaFM interview where he tells us why people should watch the film.

Shootout seems like a difficult film to shoot considering its mammoth star cast.
It wasn't difficult to shoot because we did our pre-production for over a year and we were much planned. In fact I finished the film in 59 days. My team is very efficient and we spent a lot of time planning it so that we wouldn't have a problem later because if we messed up somewhere it would be very difficult to get the combination dates again.

Who do you think will stand out from the crowd?
I think everyone has equal opportunities and equal roles. We have tried very hard to give each actor a beginning, a middle and an end but I think in my perspective Tusshar will stand out mainly because he has never done a film like this before.

Why do you say that?
Because Tusshar is a chocolate boy. He has never done an anti-hero role. He has got a pretty violent role based on a real-life character. He is a sharpshooter who loses his temper at any given moment. The real person (Dilip Buwa) on whom his character is based, once shot two girls who were laughing at a bus stand in Bhandup just because they were laughing. Since Tusshar has never done a role like this, people will stand up and notice his acting capabilities.

Do you think this is the film Vivek Oberoi's sagging career has been looking out for?
I cannot be judgmental on that. All I can say is that he has done a fantastic job. He is very talented and is one of the better actors of the country.

Does his role draw parallels to what he had done in his debut Company?
I don't know if you can compare both the roles. Obviously they are underworld oriented but in Company his character was pretty much a vulnerable character that does bad things but eventually becomes good in the second half. In my film he is an out and out bad guy.

Whose idea was it to rope in Amrita Singh for the role of Maya Dolas' (Viveik Oberoi) mother?
It was both Sanjay Gupta's and mine. Sanjay spoke to her first but she really wasn't convinced. I went to her house and chatted with her and she finally agreed to do to.

Her statement did create a controversy as well with Dolas' mother filming a lawsuit against your film?
Yes, it did but the matter is solved. People must understand that my film is based on a true event but it is a fictionalized version of a true story. It's neither a documentary nor a docu-feature. We never said that we are making a true story. It's based on true events and we have fictionalized it for the sake of better cinema. Amrita was talking about her character and it was misinterpreted. We are sorry to Maya's mother if she got offended by it but we don't mean anything personal against her.