Ram Charan's raw sexuality appeals to all women

You've been shooting quite a bit in Hyderabad. How much of the film is city centric?
Zanjeer is not Hyderabad-centric. It's a Mumbai-based film, but what we have changed in this version of the film is that the hero, Ram Charan, is from Hyderabad and gets transferred as a police commissioner to Maximum City. Since we are shooting the film in Telugu, as per union rules, we have to shoot a certain percentage of the film in Hyderabad. Hence, we are shooting here. Plus, we are shooting at some generic locations like bungalows and the like.

You are shooting simultaneously in Telugu as well. Considering you're not well-versed with the language, how are you going about it?
Personally, I'm picking up a few words. But what I do is, I rehearse the scene in Hindi and I get to know the dialogues. I've asked my writer to write down the dialogues in Telugu, followed by Hindi and English, word-to-word. That's how I know where a pause comes in, or how the actor is supposed to emote to certain sentences. In fact, we are following the same process for Charan in Hindi and Priyanka in Telugu.

While he might be unknown in Bollywood, as an actor, Ram Charan has a huge market in Andhra Pradesh...
We are launching Charan in Bollywood. I think he is a star to look out for in the future. He has a raw sexuality, which will appeal to all women. For the budget that we are making the film for, we wanted to ensure that the Telugu version is at par with the Hindi. Charan can carry off the Telugu version of the film on his shoulders. But for the Hindi version, we don't want to put too much pressure on him. Hence, we have a stellar star cast of supporting actors like Sanjay Dutt, Atul Kulkarni, Mahie Gill, etc., who can cushion Charan's entry into Bollywood.

It's important for him to have a positive start in the Hindi film industry. I've seen Charan's work and I'm a fan of his. I had made it clear to my producers that I'll go ahead with the remake of the film, only if Charan plays the leading man. And I'm glad things fell into place. He is very responsive and extremely committed. And that's a good thing for a young actor.

There is a huge section that does not like the fact that Zanjeer is being remade.
I've never made films that are based on a commercial formula. There is a section that thinks its sacrilege to remake classics, especially those starring Mr Bachchan. I know that all eyes are on this film. I don't feel the pressure as such with remaking Zanjeer. All it took was putting my heart into it and once that happened I went all out. And honestly, people who criticise me for making Zanjeer do not put bread on my table.

So, basically you condone the current trend of remaking films?
Well, you don't remake a film unless you are fond of it. You only do it because you've grown up watching them and are inspired by them. You want to give it your own interpretation. People who criticise this trend, need to think about it because they fail to understand the kind of influence it has on us. In fact, people should be proud that today's generation is re-visiting the past in their own way. I'm paying tribute to the film I'm really influenced by and that's it.

While we were shooting in Mumbai, I remember meeting Mr Bachchan who was shooting in the adjoining studio. When he got to know we were working on the remake of his film, he was so happy. He greeted us so warmly, posed for pictures with us and wished us luck. That was such a high point for us and it was a very encouraging, to say the least.