Neeraj Pandey on 'Special26'& Akshay's performance

Four years after he made his directorial debut with the critically-acclaimed A Wednesday, Neeraj Pandey is back with another thriller Special Chabbis. While A Wednesday was based on the train blasts in Mumbai, Special Chabbis has its origins in a real-life daring heist where a conman posing as CBI officer recruited 26 men as income tax officers and raided a jewellery shop. "I was impressed with the sheer audacity of the entire incident. In 1987 there were no cell phones, internet or technical gadges but the man had amazing confidence and that was the trigger point for my film."

And just like he had cast veterans Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher in the lead roles in A Wednesday, a first-of-its-kind, Neeraj has roped in Akshay Kumar to play the man who masterminds the theft. "Yes, it is going against the grain, an anti-casting but that's exactly why I chose Akshay. People have not seen him do things he is doing in this film. He has given an amazingly restrained and powerful performance," says Neeraj who did a bit of research on the subject.

He met with the officers who were active in the late eighties and were around during the heist. "They are retired now but they helped me with all the information including how to get the right look," says the director. Incidentally, while the heist is the mainstay of the film, there are three-four other such incidents that he has strung together.

Ask him why he took such a long gap after his debut film and Neeraj says that he hadn't planned it that way. "It just happened. Couple of things didn't work out and others took time to pan out," he explains. However, he wants to be more prolific now and is already working on a few ideas and scripts. "I don't want another four year gap," smiles Neeraj.

Will his next film also be based on a real incident? "Some stories appeal to you and you want to tell it. I am open to any genre but yes, I would to keep coming back to the A Wednesday genre. I would like to address a social situation with a relevant story in every third or fourth film," says Neeraj.