Onir's upcoming romance-drama, Shab will introduce Bangla superstar Prosenjit's wife Arpita Pal as the female lead. The movie also starring Raveena Tandon will transform Arpita's traditional Bengali beauty's image into a hip South Delhi socialite.

Interestingly, Onir had visited Prosenjit's place in Kolkata for a script narration and while discussing the same, he came across Arpita and was fascinated by her look. The National award winning filmmaker spoke to Prosenjit about her who was later introduced to him.

While Onir had started working on the script of Shab, he felt that Arpita fits perfectly for the role of a socialite in his movie. Arpita heard the script and liked it but the only concern for Onir was that her character needed to sport boy cut hair and Arpita had long hair. He convinced her to cut her hair short as he didn't want her to use a wig. Arpita was convinced and she bagged the role in Shab.

Set in Delhi, Shab is an edgy, dark and complex relationship story revolving around three central characters played by Raveena Tandon, newcomer Ashish Bisht and Arpita and will release next year.

Onir says, "The first time I saw Arpita, I was quite fascinated by her sensuous and good looks. After giving it a thought, I realised Arpita is apt for the role, but I wasn't sure whether she'll agree to do the movie or not. I'm glad I got Arpita on board for Shab."