Naseer's Shoot on Sight kicks off in London

Veteran Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah's next film Shoot on Sight about the July 7, 2005 bombings in London has gone on the floor with Jagmohan Mundhra wielding the megaphone for this reality-based movie.

"Our film storyline is based on Scotland Yard's order to shoot suspicious Muslim terrorists after the July 7, 2005 London bombing. It highlights the predicament of the predominantly peace loving Muslims in the face of Islamic extremism," said producer Aron Govil.

Naseer plays the lead role of Tariq Ghaffur, a Muslim police officer of Scotland Yard, who's asked to hunt down suspected suicide-bombers involved in the July 7 attacks.

Tariq's task gets complicated when the commando shooters of Scotland Yard kill an innocent Muslim. It is further complicated when Lahore-born Tariq, who is a British citizen married to an English woman, becomes a suspect in the eyes of his colleagues, despite his long service.

It has an interesting mixed star cast - Brian Cox, Greta Scacchi, Stephen Greif, Om Puri, Sadie Frost, Mikaal Zulfikar and Laila Rousas, a Moroccan Indian actress popular in Britain.

Shoot on Sight is made under the banner of Cine Boutique Entertainment owned by Mundhra and Govil. It is planned to wrap up the movie by mid July to be released by the year-end.

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Naseer, Shabana to act together again

If cine buffs were asked to vote for Bollywood’s most enthralling performing jodi, it would have to be Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi. Together they delighted audiences and changed the face and quality content of Hindi cinema in the 1970s with masterpieces like Paar, Sparsh, Khandhar, Masoom, Ek Pal and Khamosh.

Then the two stalwarts drifted apart, especially after Naseer in one of his humourously unguarded moments said ‘Shabana was completely in love with herself.’ The last film the dynamic duo worked on was Gulzar’s unreleased film Libaas in 1988.

While Shabana never stopped craving to act again with her favourite co-star, Naseer was far more cautious. “I can’t do just any film with Shabana because she’s keen to work with me. The vehicle has to justify our collective presence,” Naseer had said.

That vehicle is finally here. Shabana and Naseer get together after 19 years in debutant director Rohit Roy’s 10-minute film Rice Plate. It will form part of a series called Dus Kahaniyaan. The film being shot today, goes into the touchy topic of the communal divide in Mumbai.

Producer Sanjay Gupta said, “Rohit doesn’t know how lucky he is. All these years I’ve waited to direct Naseer and Shabana, and never got the chance. I started my career as an assistant to Pankuj Parasher in Jalwa where Naseer was the hero. Today I’m producing a film where he stars. Wow!”

Shabana, who plays an orthodox Tamilian Brahmin in Rice Plate, has been preparing for the past two weeks by spending time with Tamilian women to learn their mannerisms. This isn’t the first time she plays a Tamilian. She played one in Mahesh Dattani’s Morning Raga as well.

Naseer plays a Muslim man. The film, to be shot on the Bandra railway station, is about a life-changing chance encounter between two strangers from totally different cultural zones. “What’s truly remarkable about this short film is that neither Naseer nor Shabana speak a word in the film,” said producer Sanjay Gupta.

Naseeruddin Shah to star in Jalwa 2

The trend of sequels has not died out yet. Even the films from the 80’s and the 90’s are to be continued with sequels. The latest buzz is that Pankaj Parasher is planning a sequel to his film Jalwa. The film starring Naseruddin Shah, Archana Puran Singh, Pankaj Kapoor and Rohini Hattangadi was a big hit of 1987. Parasher spoke with Naseeruddin about making a sequel and Naseer found the idea very interesting. The film is in planning stage currently.

Apparently, Naseeruddin also recently shot for Parashar’s revived TV serial Karamchand 2 in which Pankaj Kapoor plays the lead role.

Parashar informs that Jalwa 2 will start from the point where Jalwa ended.

Naseer will star in TV series Karamchand

It has been two decades now that Naseeruddin Shah was seen on television. He was seen playing the lead character in Gulzar’s serial Mirza Ghalib which was the story of the legendary Urdu poet. Naseer will now do a cameo in the new version of the famous detective serial, Karamchand, the series that showed Pankaj Kapoor as a carrot eating detective was a big hit in the late 80’s. The serial is currently played as a weekly on television.

Naseeruddin Shah will be seen in one of the episodes of the serial next month. He will be shooting next week for the same. Pankaj Parashar, the director and producer of Karamchand says that Naseer wanted something interesting to come back to television. He told Pankaj that if he wants him to act for the serial, he has to create a character that will challenge enough. Shah will be seen in the role of a legal eagle in one of the episodes. Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapoor shared screen space in Pankaj Parashar’s Jalwa and Banaras. They were also seen together in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool.

It will definitely be amazing to see these two big stars coming together on the small screen with Karamchand.

Naseruddin signs his first Pakistani film

Naseeruddin Shah has signed his first Pakistani film called Khuda Ke Naam. The film will be directed by Pakistani filmmaker Shoab Mansoor. Naseer will be doing just one sequence in the film.

According to him, director Shoaob Mansoor came to Mumbai to meet him. Naseeruddin liked the script and thought of doing it. In his single sequence in the film, Naseer appears as an elderly maulana, who turns the tables on the fundamentalists. His character talks about several misconceptions about Islam.

Apart from this movie Naseer is working for Arindam Mitra’s Shunya, Rishi Mehta’s bi-lingual film Amal. He is also going through the script of Jagmohan Mundhra’s Shoot on Sight.

Naseeruddin Shah takes Big B's place

It is a role for which director Jagmohan Mundhra sought Amitabh Bachchan. However, the megastar has turned down the offer.

Even as his Provoked is slated to release worldwide in February, Mundhra has already begun working on his next project titled Shoot On Sight.

The film will again be set in UK. It will tell the true story of an Asian Muslim cop in London whose loyalty to the system is doubted after the July 7 train bombings in London. The film attempts to highlight a country’s changing point of view towards Asian Muslims after the terrorist attack.

The movie’s title perhaps refers to the shoot on sight order given to British police after the attacks. The order gave the cops legal authority to shoot any suspected individual about to carry a terrorist attack. Tragically, an innocent Brazilian died in once such incident.

Earlier, Mundhra had approached Ben Kingsley and Amitabh Bachchan to play the lead role of the Asian Muslim cop. But both actors expressed their inability to do the movie.

Now, Mundhra has signed Naseeruddin Shah for the part.

Naseer, who is presently out of action because of his son Hamid's accident, will most likely begin shooting for the movie in March or April.

The film will also star British actress Greta Scacchi as Naseer's wife.

Naseeruddin Shah out of Hattrick

After his son Imad met with a train accident, actor Naseeruddin Shah has decided to opt out of Milan Luthria’s Hattrick. Reportedly, the actor has been replaced by Danny Dengzongpa.

20-year-old Imad, aspiring actor and filmmaker, fell of a local train between Lower Parel and Mahalaxmi stations and is now recuperating. Naseeruddin has stepped back to look after Imad since his son’s treatment will take up four months. Imad has several broken bones and needs to undergo severe physiotherapy.

As Luthria confirmed, the shooting of the movie was supposed to start in December. But since Imad’s accident took place just a week before that, the shooting saw a hiatus for two weeks. Luthria said that Naseer’s backing out has been a great loss to him as every director dreams of working with an actor of Naseer’s caliber. However, the shoot could not be further delayed as the film aims to release during the Cricket World Cup in March 2007. Therefore, Luthria had to look for Naseer’s replacement immediately.

Last seen in Krrish and Omkara, Naseer will be out of the filmy circuit until his son recovers. After all, he has walked out of Hattrick only for Imad. Hattrick is a comedy flick set against the backdrop of the Cricket World Cup. Luthria has recently shot an item song starring Rimmi Sen and Kunal Kapoor, which claims to be a very seductive number. Hopefully, the movie will see a Cricket World Cup release!