Back in focus
Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 12, 2014)

Bejoy Nambiar's upcoming film, Focus, with Rajkummar Rao in the lead, ran into troubled waters after its director, Akarsh Khurana, opted out following creative differences (Mirror, June 2). The project is back on track.

The film will now be directed by Heeraz Marfatia, who had previously directed the critically-acclaimed 2002 short film Birju which was nominated for the Oscars in the student film category. A protege of Shekhar Kapur, Heeraz also directed a short film, Exit, produced by Kapur, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year.

Confirming the news, Bejoy said, "I've been ideating with Heeraz on a script for the past one year. After Akarsh's exit I confided in him that I was in a fix and ran the script of Focus by him and asked if he'd be interested in directing it. He jumped at the opportunity. We'll roll in Mumbai by the end of this month."