Ankur Pathak and Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 20, 2014)

After his menacing turn in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey, Amole Gupte is set to return to the bigscreen with another villainous act. Mirror has learnt that the actor has been signed to play the main khalnayak in Rohit Shetty’s Singham 2, which toplines Ajay Devgn and Kareena Kapoor.

Said a source close to the film, “Amole will be as ferocious as Prakash Raj was in the first installment. He’s been asked by Rohit to bulk up for the role and his wife, editor Deepa Bhatia, is rustling up carb-heavy meals for him as he needs to put on 15 kilos.”

The writer of Taare Zameen Par and the director of Stanley Ka Dabba dismissed Rohit’s offer as a joke when the director first contacted him. But today he is excited to be a part of the franchise. “My son (Partho) and I are big fans of Rohit’s films and now I’m in one of them. We start shooting mid-March,”says Gupte. And he is enjoying the prep.“I have already put on 8 kilos, also thanks to my wife’s Sindhi food,” he says.