After earning applause for his performance in his Bollywood debut Tere Bin Laden back in 2010, surprisingly Ali Zafar's role in the sequel to the film has been drastically reduced to just a cameo.
Tere Bin... that won him several awards incidentally was banned in his home country Pakistan. Pradhuman Singh, who played the titular role, will be seen playing a meatier character in the sequel.
The film's director-writer Abhishek Sharma however doesn't want to call Ali's role just a cameo. "He's playing a special cameo while Pradhuman Singh will be having a bigger part."
Meanwhile, today, the first death anniversary of the dreaded terrorist, will mark the first day of the sequel's pre-production.
When pressed about the kind of roles Ali and Pradhuman will be portraying or whether the upcoming film will be on the same line as before, Abhishek was cautious enough not to divulge the plot and instead said, "I'm not at liberty to share anything now but it's going to be crazier than before. We'll be making fun of a lot more folks!"
When Tere Bin Laden released, it garnered quite a lot of attention. With a humorous storyline that boldly dealt with the confusing scenarios in the post-9/11 world, it was well received.
In the meantime, producer Pooja Shetty Deora started receiving phone threats and letters right after the release from those who felt that the film was misleading and made mockery of a serious issue. However, that frightening episode hasn't daunted her from creating a sequel.
Abhishek adds, "Yes, that was disturbing but we knew we weren't glorifying Osama as such. On the other hand, we were just lampooning the flaws in America's war against terrorism. As there is no sacred cow, we were busy pushing the limits."
