By Subhash K Jha

Apoorva Lakhia's producers Suniel Shetty and Ekta Kapoor had to pay a fortune to get George Bush to Mumbai. 'Bush' not only came down to Mumbai he also paid Maharashtra's chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh a courtesy visit.

Well..almost. Brent Mendenhall who plays Bush in Lakhia's Mission Istanbul is invariably mistaken for George Bush all over the world.

"We had to have Bush in a film on international terrorism, " says Lakhia with his tongue in cheek. "Since we couldn't get Bush we went to the guy who plays Bush as a habit."

But if you think Lakhia's film on international terrorism is filled with impersonators then here comes the antidote.

Kashmir's charismatic politiciam Omar Adullah appears as himself in Mission Istanbul. Lakhia not only learnt a whole lot about the anatomy and politics of terrorism from his school friend Omar Abdullah, he also got the Kashmiri politician to play a role in Mission Istanbul.

Explaining how it happened Lakhia says, "Omar and I went to school together.I met him to play a role because Mission Istanbul is about international terrorism. And he has had first-hand experience of it in Kashmir. I got to know so much from him. Omar's inputs really helped the film."

Omar Abdullah appears as an interviewee on television in Mission Istanbul. "It was great fun. He flew down to Jaipur with his family to shoot. After we shot with him his son ran to him for his autograph, "recounts Lakhia.

While Omar plays himself in Mission Istanbul, Lakhia got bang-on look-alikes for George Bush and Osama bin Laden to play the originals.

"Osama is played by Khalil Ahmed who's an exact replica. And George Bush is played by Brent Mendenhall who has made a career out of impersonating George Bush. He' s a well-known stand-up comedian and and has been on the Jay Leno, David Letterman shows, and is invited to play Bush whenever required."

Brent posing as Bush went visiting Vilasrao Deshmukh. "We had him accompanied by the full state-level paraphernalia. Vilasraoji's security just let him pass by without even contemplating a security check.

Of course we had to take the CM into confidence. But the rest of his staff were kept in the dark.And they got completely fooled, " laughs Lakhia.