Says Lakhia, "We're very lucky to have visual documentation of the incident. What happened was that Minty Tejpal, a journalist from a now-defunct video magazine Newstrack was interviewing Pooja Bedi in Andheri when he heard a shoot-out had broken out in a building in Lokhandwala. Minty dumped Pooja and ran to cover what turned out to be a historic encounter."
Lakhia has decided to use that one-hour special instalment of Newstrack in his film. " I don't know how I can fit in the visuals because it is in the obsolete VHS format.
As it is, I'm shooting Shoot-Out in the 16 mm format and blowing it up into the 70 mm to get that grainy gritty documentary look. I'm somehow going to fit in Minty's footage."
What Lakhia has done for now is to replicate every detail of the live Newstrack footage in his film. "And I mean every detail...from the furniture to the position of the boys and cops....every single detail I've taken from Minty's film."
In this detailing of violence Lakhia hopes to live up to producer Sanjay Gupta's image as a purveyor of true-life violence.
The film is complete....Except for Sanjay Dutt's portions which Lakhia hopes to complete in December. "That would be the grand shoot-out with the entire cast. We're just waiting for the verdict on Sanju Sir. And then we're done."