Hansal Mehta is in awe of actor Rajkummar Rao

Rajkummar Rao has stepped into the shoes of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh for Hansal Mehta's Omerta and has done all that takes to make the role as convincing as possible. The trailer looks promising and you will explore the dark reality of the world - the flip side of humanity.  The actor has left us stunned with the portrayal of terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh in the trailer of Omerta.

The film will follow the life of the British born terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, known for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, and his links to various Islamist organisations. Rajkummar plays the titular role in the film.

In an interview with a leading daily, director Hansal Mehta said, "I wanted to explore evil as a human characteristic and I found an actor (referring to Rajkummar Rao) who was ready to explore the same. To hawk on an evil character. That attracted me to the subject. The challenge of bringing out. He (Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh) is the animal of terrorism."

"The seed of the idea was given to me by actor Mukul Dev. He has been credited for the story and as a co-writer. He gave me this idea back in 2005 much before Rajkummar Rao had even made his entry in Bollywood. That was the beginning. I found the story very interesting. At that time, nobody thought of making biopics. So, it was an interesting idea that I wanted to develop. It soon became an obsession so much so that when I took a sabbatical in between even then I was constantly thinking about this project. I was developing the script, it was in process, and Shahid happened," said the director.

He was all praises for Rajkummar and thanked him as because of him, the project could finally take the flight and shape up the way he thought of. "I think every film has its own destiny. I had to meet Rajkummar and because I met him, he became an enabler and because of him, I could make this film," said Hansal.

Talking about the research level, Mehta added, "At the time when Mukul told me the story, the internet was really slow. I had to buy a lot of books, lots of material from archives, different magazines and what not. What happens with scripts is that you eventually start writing. Working or beginning to work on the project is important otherwise research can go on forever. This (Omerta) could have gone for five more years."

Hansal recalled an instance when the film was featured at a festival in Florence and how Italian women were attracted to Rajkummar's portrayal of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.

"You should have seen the reaction to the film in Florence. We had a premiere there at a festival. After the premiere, a lot of women came up to me asking about Rajkummar. The Italian women found him hot and sexy. There is this thing about an evil personality that is attractive in a weird way," said Hansal.

"You know the exploration of evil as characteristic with an actor like Rajkummar, he made it so real and palpable, like it's happening just in front of us and immediate. I think that makes the film really special. Rajkummar pushes me and himself to the core. For example, the killing of Daniel Pearl is one of the brutal moments in the film. It just happened. Raj got so much violence within himself. The violence in that sequence is incredible, even without any graphics. It scares you. The sound, look and Raj, it scares you. I was not scared but this was a different person and I was happy he was not the Raj I would want to spend the time in the evening," said the Aligarh director.

When asked how he helped Rajkummar become Omar, Hansal answered, "By giving him space. The idea is to allow the actor to explore and blossom. The director is a parent. You have to allow the actors to blossom and channelise their energy. If Manoj has a process, my job is to help him with that. Same is the case with Rajkummar. I have to aid that process because work gets better this way. We mix and match our interpretation and bring something new together."

CREDITS: INDIAN EXPRESS