Dabangg villain turns a cop

Sonu Sood's grimacing villainy in Dabangg has got him the kind of recognition no amount of goody goody roles ever did. Just when Sood was all set to unleash an avalanche of evil on screen by signing on plum villain's roles in 5 of the biggest films of 2010-11 as the chief badman, Salman Khan put a brake on Sood's diabolic plans.

No more villains' parts until the sequel of Dabangg. That's the brief given to Sood by his Dabangg hero. Confounded by the embargo, Sonu Sood has done the next best thing. He has crossed over to Chulbul Pandey's territory and is playing a cop in the two films that he has signed in 2011.

Intense preparations are on to get the nuances right. Sood recently spent a fortnight with a top cop in Punjab to understand the mind, body language and spoken language of a cop.

Says Sood, "It's true I have been told not to expend my mean muscles until Dabangg 2. Interestingly, I've signed two major cops' roles. One is a dream-come-true role in Puri Jaganaath's Buddha where I play Mr. Bachchan's son. My role is modelled on Amitji in Zanjeer."

Sonu has watched Zanjeer 17 times in the last six months. To his command over the Bachchanesque style of law enforcement in Zanjeer (including that famous body-flying-across-the-air for a full-impact hurl against the adversary that had the crowds roaring when Mr B did it in 1973 in Zanjeer) Sonu will add the inner knowledge of a cop's world.

"I've spent time with a senior of the DGP rank in Punjab, Mr. P S Gill. He has helped understand how a cop functions," informs Sood.

The law enforcement skills would help Sonu with his other role this year as well. Says Sonu, "I again a play cop in Kabir Kaushik's underworld drama Maximum. I had no intentions of doing any other film except Buddha this year. And that too another role as a cop! But when I read the script of Maximum I was bowled over. I will play this cop very differently from the one in Buddha."

These two films will take Sonu Sood to the end of this year. "And then it's back to villainy in Dabangg 2. Badman Returns," Sonu laughs his most diabolic laughter.

Hope Salman heard it.