'Once Upon A time In Mumbaai', a film set in the Mumbai underworld of the 70s, has taken some time to reach the finishing line. It is a known fact that the film was announced close to two years back with its shooting, kick starting, a year later.

Where a regular film normally takes a year from announcement to release, this period film has definitely taken longer. In fact in the interim there were also rumours about the film not quite seeing the light of the day.

For its lead actor Emraan Hashmi, whose films typically take 6-8 months to complete, a wait of two years seems rather long.

"On the contrary, I think that for a film like this which requires so much hard work and preparation, it has been finished quite fast", defends Emraan, "When you are depicting an era of the late 60s and early 70s, there is lot of time that has to be spent on activities that are required to be completed away from the sets.

There is some effort that has gone into recreating the time period gone by. The film's screenplay was tough as well, since lot of minute details were required to be captured."

Elaborating on the nitty-gritty of making a film like OUATIM, Emraan says, "We had to shoot in Mumbai while also ensuring that there is no reflection of today's time. We had to hunt for unique and great locations because today, everything in Mumbai is modernized.

I remember that once we were shooting on a pavement and realised to our horror that the tiles out there belonged to the 21st century. We had to cover all of that. If we don't take care of things like these, it will fail to live up its authentic feel. This is why the making of such a film takes time."

With Ajay Devgan leading from the front, this Milan Luthria directed film will be releasing all over India on 30th July.