Apoorva Lakhia justifies his decision to cast Ram Charan in his Zanjeer remake
While he is best remembered for Shootout At Lokhandwala, his last outing at the box office Mission Istanbul was a dud. Director Apoorva Lakhia, who had chosen to keep away from filmmaking for a while, is now back with the remake of Zanjeer, in which he introduces the Maaveeran star Ram Charan Tej to Bollywood.
Quiz him about his choice of hero and he says, “I was looking for someone young. Zanjeer is about an angry, young man. There is no young action hero today in Bollywood. The current Bollywood heroes are a metrosexual lot. Charan is grungy and unconventionally good-looking and has proved to be a good action hero in the south.“
The director, though, had a tough time convincing Charan to sign the film. “Talks were on for almost a year. But it was only a fortnight ago that he actually agreed to be part of my film. He’s a big star from a big family in Tollywood, and this transition to Bollywood, where he’s a newcomer, isn’t easy,” says Apoorva.
The filmmaker has made the script more contemporary. “I won’t have a heroine who goes mending knives on the road. It will be young and contemporary. We are planning to deal with the oil mafia and will include episodes like the Sonavane murder and journalist J Dey’s killing,” says Apoorva, who plans on roping in top-of-theline actors to play these parts, apart from an established Bollywood face as the leading lady.
Ask him if he plans on asking Charan’s dad Chiranjeevi to be part of the film and he says, “I would be grateful if he offers to be part of the film. But considering the next film that he does will be his 150th, I don’t want to offer him a small role. After all, it is a landmark number and requires a film of that magnitude.“
