Anurag Kashyap with Anand L Rai, actor Vineet Kumar, Singh Zoya Hussain, Ravi Kishan, and Jimmy Shergill were present at the trailer launch of the film ‘Mukkabaaz’ on Thursday. During media interaction director Kashyap said, he wants his actors to dedicate all their time for his project.
Anurag who is the Co-writer and director of the film was asked about his peculiar casting decisions, admitted that he loves to work with new actors, “I love to work with new actors because I want them to dedicate all their time to me. I know it is a selfish reason but it brings out the best whether its actor, composer or anyone else. I find it best to work with actors who aren’t working on any other projects.”
Anurag explained the significance of the film’s name and a dialogue form the trailer stating the difference between Mukkebaaz and Mukkabaaz, “Mukkabaaz is like a cuss word used for a boxer, when people will watch the film it will make more sense in the context. Mukkebaaz are proper sportsmen whereas street fighters are called Mukkabaaz.”
Vineet who is playing the lead in the film as the boxer said he trained hard for the role for months at a stretch in Punjab. At first, he could believe he was part of the film, he said “When Anurag first told me I am doing this film I couldn’t believe it. I had spent years knocking doors for work. When we met he told me if I can’t become a boxer then I can’t do Mukkabaaz. I went straight home and packed up and left for Patiala. When I started sparing with the other boxers I would get beat up by them regularly. But I kept it up I had to learn how to box. I hadn’t told anyone why I was trying to learn how to box when I did and was asked to train separately my day started at 3 in the morning and I started training for 8 hours a day.”
Produced is jointly by Anand L. Rai and Kashyap’s Phantom Films, the film stars Vineet Kumar Singh, Zoya Hussain, Ravi Kishan and Jimmy Shergill.
Mukkabaaz is scheduled to release theatrically on 12 January 2017.
It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2017 Mumbai Film Festival.
