Apoorva Lakhia "clears" <i>Shootout at Lokhandwala</i>

Courtesy: IndiaFM

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

He assisted Ashutosh Gowariker on Lagaan and more recently directed Amitabh Bachchan in the slick flick Ek Ajnabee. Presently he is quite kicked about his ambitious multi-starrer Shootout at Lokhandwala produced by Sanjay Gupta. There has been a lot of talk and speculation on this film. We get the facts straight from the filmmaker.

Is the film based on a real life incident?
Yes, the film is inspired from the encounter of 5 members of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang members by super cop Aftab Ahmad Khan and his men. Khan wrote a book Surrender and had one chapter on this.

Word is that Khan is also playing a role in the film.

Yes, but he is not playing his own role but that of the then commissioner of police S Ramamurthy. Sanjay Dutt will enact Khan's role.

There has been a lot of speculation on the starcast of the film. Can you confirm the final cast of the film?
There are a lot of people in the film. The finalized cast is Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Arbaaz Khan, Arjun Rampal, Vivek Oberoi, Tusshar Kapoor, Sammir Dattani and Shabbir Ahluwalia. The leading ladies are Esha Deol and Urmila Matondkar. Lots of other names were cited by the media but this is the final cast. Sanjay Dutt and Arbaaz Khan will be essaying the roles of cops in the film.

Any special makeovers for any character of the film?
Every body has a different look. Since the film is inspired from a real life incident, we had to have a lot of documented facts and also did a lot of research. Everyone is given a look accordingly.

When will the film go on floors?
1st August.

And release?
I'm not very sure but should be early next year.

Finally, what will be your next project post Shootout...?
I have a couple of good offers but I haven't committed to anything else. I'm doing just one film a year.