Abbas-Mustan to Indianise The Italian Job

After pairing with Farhan Akhtar in Rock On, Prachi Desai is now working in Rumi Jaffery's Life Partner opposite her godmother Ekta's kid-brother Tusshar. The film's first schedule was done recently and is produced by Abbas-Mustan.

On the direction front, Abbas-Mustan are hell-bent on turning The Italian Job into an Indian Job. After years of adapting Hollywood thrillers, Abbas-Mustan just won't do a straightforward faithful adaptation.

Speaking on the job, Abbas says, "Studio 18 thought of us for an Indian Italian Job after seeing how we shot the chase sequences in Race. Two years ago to execute the intricate action scenes in The Italian Job would've been tough. Today we can comfortably pull it off. Our producers are willing to go all out. No expenses will be spared to make sure our The Italian Job is as good as the original."

Though this is the first adaptation that they're doing after legally purchasing the original rights, Abbas-Mustan are adamant on re-vamping the story. "Whenever we've adapted a film we've completely Indianized the story. Though Studio 18 has bought the rights and though we can use every frame from the original same-to-same, we don't want to do that. We're going to Indianize The Italian Job. We'll add roles for two heroines. We might even have an American actress in the film. And the villain will be played by one of the top heroes. We want to make it better than the original."

Now Abbas-Mustan are besieged by Bollywoodian badshahs who want a part. "It seems every major hero in Mumbai has always wanted to do The Italian Job. It's got everything from a heist to comedy", laughs Abbas.

Abbas and Mustan are also producing their first film Life Partner directed by Rumi Jaffrey with Govinda, Fardeen Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Genelia Dsouza and Prachi Desai. Says Abbas, "It's a film to appeal to people from the age of 18 to 60. It's completely different from the kind of comedies Rumi directs."