THE MOVIE that everyone has been talking about in the past few weeks is hotly anticipated gangster sequel Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Again along with its lead stars Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha.
Supporting a brand new look in the 1980s set movie, Imran confessed two of that decade’s biggest stars Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor inspired the mannerisms of his character.
Observing them in their darker roles helped him to get into the skin of his villainous character.
“As I had to go back to the 80s for my role in the film, I based my character on actors like Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff. I watched a lot of films of these two actors to understand how things were back then. It was great to copy great actors like them,” said Imran.
Even though he looks drastically different in the movie, the 30-year-old star doesn’t believe in having a set image.
“I have not thought of my image. People talk about my image change as they did with Delhi Belly and Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, but I never think about it that way. I only look at the script as an audience and think if I would want to watch this film or not,” said Imran, before adding. “I don’t have a career plan. If I find a story entertaining then I do it. I go with my gut feeling and not think about what will work and what will not.”
The second installment of the gangster movie is due for release this Eid and sees Akshay Kumar reprise the Shoaib Khan role originally portrayed by Emraan Hashmi in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai.
Akshay doesn’t feel any pressure about taking the villainous role forward and says this is like no other character he has played before.
“With this character I haven’t taken a responsibility and haven’t come to give an exam. I am just playing my role. I have not thought of it as a benchmark. I just followed my director, as he is the captain of the ship. I never thought that I had to cross any benchmark. I just did my job and that’s it,” said Akshay.
Just like the first film, the sequel is also loosely based on real life events that happened (this time in the 1980s), but where it differs dramatically is that it has a much more powerful love story.
Even though it is set in a past decade, director Milan Luthria has tried to give it a contemporary feel in terms of pacing, energy, acting and the way it has been shot. “The first film was about a power struggle, whereas as this film is a romantic triangle. It has very different colours, it has a different type of aroma; there is more stress on romance and music. So we had an opportunity to do something new,” sad Milan.
All the stars including the youngest (lead) cast member Sonakshi Sinha didn’t have a problem of going back in time.
She said: “He (Luthria) made me understand everything so fully that I lapped up by character of Yasmin, so much that I was living, sleeping the character. So it was really enjoyable working on it.”
Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Againwill be released on August 8.
