Shootout at Lokhandwala is a male dominated film

Well, a lot of male bonding seems to be happening in the film. "There was a fantastic camaraderie between everyone. We still meet regularly." And what about the director Apoorva Lakhia? "He was the man at the helm. Our skipper. He has done an outstanding job in the film as a director. He also kept this very cool vibes on the sets. It felt like a really long boy's night out."

Amrita Singh is playing your Aai in the film. Foul mouthed Aai if we may say so. "I loved the character of Aai in the film. And Amrita Singh is brilliant. What an actress. The scenes I have with her, the chemistry she brings to those scenes is amazing. And it is such an amazing relationship. Such an amazingly strong woman. You wouldn't have watched such a strong woman in Hindi cinema in a long time."

Chota Rajan has recently said that police had killed Maya Dolas even though he had agreed to surrender. "There are many versions to the story. Like when I was researching, the cops had a certain version, there were other people who had another version, the bystanders had another version. I went through a lot of versions. We had to choose one version. You can't shoot with seven versions. You can't have seven endings in the film. At the end of the day it's a film and not a documentary. You can't make a 20 crore documentary.

"You have to be true to facts I agree but sometimes you have to be true to the legend. If the climax and the end are not larger than life then it won't be fun. It won't be a fulfilling experience," Viveik said thinking hard and trying to be precisely correct as per his thought process.

There are reports that Dawood Ibrahim gang had tipped off the police as Maya was close to Chota Rajan. Would you call Maya Dolas a victim of circumstances in a way? "You should see the film. A lot of your questions will be answered. It's a very gutsy film. On a human level I understand Maya, his family, his circumstances, his reasons, his background. I don't endorse what he did. I don't say what he did was right. But I understand him. I understand the human in him.

He added, "I feel our film will pose an important question to the society. Are there criminals because there is crime or there is crime because there are criminals. If you kill 10, then 10 more are born. Why? Something is wrong with our society," Viveik said animatedly. Obviously the guy works hard on his characters. And one has never doubted his gifted acting talent.

Hmmm....quite absorbing so far. What are you doing next? "Nothing. I'm doing nothing. It's an important conscious decision for my career and my own respect for my passion for cinema. Once this film is done, I will go for a well deserved holiday, come back and do one film at a time."

Will we see the same Viveik Oberoi who showed a lot of promise in the beginning of his career and somewhere lost the way for whatever reasons? "Your question should be answered in the next 24 hours," Oberoi junior said with a smile. He said he liked the interview. And we must say we liked him (in spite of the cautions at the beginning of the interview). For in spite of his quirks, he seems to be a much more focused actor, determined to live up to the promises he made. We hope he does. For having suffered so many brickbats, the fall guy deserves a good chance. Wouldn't you agree!

Shootout At Lokhandwala - Premiere

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