Apoorva Lakhia On His Music Video. He Talks To Subhash K Jha About His New Feature Film, The Much Talked-About Encounter At Lokhandwala.

Q: What's your music video about?
A: It's for a pop singer named Tarina Patel. In mood it's close to Abhishek's song in Bluff Master. Just how she chose me to do it, I don't know. I shot with her and a model named Ajay. There's a Hindi version to the track by Gayatri Ganjawala and Arya. We shot it on the beaches of Mauritius over a period of two days.

Q: Now when do you start your feature film ?
A: Encounter At Lokandwala starts on 1 August. Since it's based on true events, it requires a lot of research. My producer Sanjay Gupta's office has been fantastic with the research. We've got files and files from 1989 when it actually happened. We're going to keep it as factual as possible. It will be two hours of real drama.

We know how the cops dealt with the situation. But do we know what happened to the people who were stuck inside? We're going to shoot the film on location outside the building where it actually happened. The interiors will have to be done on a set.

Q: Looks like you're having fun ?
A: Yup, Sanjay Gupta and I think alike. So we're a great team. We came together for one very good reason: Sanjay Dutt.. Gupta called me for lunch and asked me what I wanted to do: a remake or an original.

I opted for the original, since I've done both an original (Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost) and an adaptation (Ek Ajnabee). Even if it didn't do well I was more happy with the original. Though I thought I copied well in Ek Ajnabee.

Q: How will you plot this real thriller?
A: We'll keep the actual facts in place. We're interviewing people who were in the building when this shoot-out happened. We've met people who hid under the bed for more than three hours. We got lots of footage from TV channels who covered the incident. But we can't say it's based on a real incident. So we'll just say what people saw was real, what no one saw was the truth.

Q: Which side of the law will Sanjay Dutt be on?
A: He'll play a cop. So will Arjun Rampal and Javed Jaffrey. We've Viveik Oberoi as one the people inside the building. There're 20-25 other characters who have to be cast. I want to take all my suppoting actors from my two previous films.

Lots of stuff happened ...and we've to shoot it as realistically as possible. Since I'm a stickler for details, I'll have to recreate 1989. The police uniforms, their gadgets and ammunition have all changed.

Q: So will it be a real film or a thriller?
A: Sanjay Gupta and I want to give it the feeling of a fast-moving docu-feature like Oliver Stone's JFK. The editing would be pretty quick, though not in-your-face like Ek Ajnabee so that the normal junta can take in what's going on. Of course it will be a guys' film. So far we have't found no positions for the girls. There will be couple of girls.But no songs.

Q: Item songs?
A: No no.... this is gritty territory. I know a lot of films are headline- based. This is a good time to make any kind of films. Of course when you go to a producer they first want you to make a remake. But still there's a lot of unpredictability in what can be done.

If you get a producer like Sanjay Gupta you can be as adventurous as you are capable of. He's a really chilled-out guy. We're both into cinema and books. He's a walking-talking library for world cinema.

He really motivates me. ...and Ram Gopal Varma. You can't get away from him if you're making a real film. He's the baap of the real genre. And I love the way he plays with silences. Look at how little Mr Bachchan spoke in Sarkar.

Q: What happens to your other projects?
A: There's a jungle thriller which I went half-way through and then got stuck. I don't know what's going to happen to that project because just after Shoot-out At Lokhandwala I go into my comedy Just Punjabi.

Q: Lokhandwala will be your first film with no Bachchans.
A: It doesn't have to be that way. Let's see. There're lots of crucial characters in this film. I'd say in terms of characterization I'd like my film to be like Crash. I want every actor to have a well-defined role. I'm really excited. I want to like Richard Donner or Joel Schumaecher who make all kinds of films.

Q: How long will you take to complete Lokhandwala?
A: Forty days, and we're done.