It was a casting coup of types for Dibakar Banerjee to place together Abhay Deol and Emraan Hashmi in his upcoming political thriller 'Shanghai' however the director says he loves to take 'calculated risks' with each of his films
Abhay is understood for his intense characters while Emraan has just graduated to mature roles after playing the perpetual bad boy and serial-kisser in a variety of films.
"I am cautious once I approach a celeb. There should be a right script, star and role to come back together for my film. I managed to have two talented stars with me for 'Shanghai'. I enjoy taking calculated risks with every film. If I DO NOT do something new, I DO NOT find the method of filmmaking interesting," Dibakar.
The stock of both the actors have gone up since they were signed for 'Shanghai' which has kept the film in news despite delays within the release much to the delight of Dibakar.
"Perhaps nobody ever imagined Emraan and Abhay to be in such avatar but now that it has happened, there's good excitement building up. For them to return together within the same film and that too within the more or less roles they're playing is nothing lower than a casting coup."
Emraan had successful with 'Murder 2' and 'The Dirty Picture' last year while Abhay enjoyed his biggest commercial success with 'Zindagi Naa Milegi Dobara'. The director, who's known for casting actors instead of stars in his films, says he isn't against the star system of Bollywood.
"Stars have that palpable pressure of stardom on their shoulder. Sometimes it's unfair on our part to invite them to throw off that weight so casually and expect them to do something differently for our sake."
'Shanghai' is first adaptation for Dibakar, who's known for choosing up stories from newspaper headlines and the life around in films like 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', 'Oye Lucky Lucky Oye' and 'Love, Sex Aur Dhoka'.
It is relies on Greek author Vassilis Vassilikos' famous novel 'Z' and has already been made right into a successful French movie. It was earlier scheduled to release in January but will now hit theatres in June.
'Shanghai' stars Kali Koechelin because the female protagonist and likewise features Prosenjit Chatterjee and Farooq Sheikh in key roles. With music by Vishal-Shekhar, the film releases all over the place on June 8.
