/> When it comes to Anurag Kashyap's cinema the only thing that is predictable is the that his movies are unpredictable. For Gangs Of Wasseypur, now being shot in Varanasi, Kashyap has signed director Tigmanshu Dhulia to play the main villain.

Tigmanshu's character is apparently based on Bihar's charge-sheeted politician Surajbhan Singh, wanted for several alleged crimes and convicted in 2008 for murder.

The film, though set in the coalmines of Dhanbad in Bihar, is being shot in Varanasi.

Why Tigmanshu? The director who is currently helming two films, the bio-pic Pan Singh Tomar and the love triangle Sahib Bibi Aur Gangster, says he was not hesitant about crossing over from direction to acting, and that too at such a short notice to play a central role.

Says Dhulia, "I don't know why Anurag thought of me for the main villain's role. Maybe I look evil. I am a trained actor from the National School of Drama.But I hadn't done any acting for twenty years. I thought I was bad actor, until last year when I acted in a diploma film for Subhash Ghai's Whistling Woods acting school. It was then that I thought, arrey yaar main acting kar sakta hoon."

Coincidentally Anurag Kashyap's offer came along. "It's a major role. Anurag's film is in two parts. And I am in both.Maybe one of my temptations to take up the offer was the fact that I am very familiar with the North Indian Bihar-UP belt."

Tigmanshu wears a dhoti-kurta throughout the film.

About the being based on the dreaded Bihari politician Tigmanshu says, "So I've heard. But I've not copied Surajbhan Singh.I am dressed like a Bihari politician in Dhoti-Kurta. But I haven't copied anyone.I'm playing the part in a very subtle style with dark shades. I am not doing over-the-top villainy."

Tigmanshu is unsure of his future plans as an actor. But he admits after Farhan Akhtar it has become fashionable for Bollywood directors to face the camera. "Even Anurag Kashyap played roles in Zoya Akhtar's Luck By Chance and Sudhir Mishra's Tera Kya Hoga Johnny."