Upala KBR (DNA; March 11, 2016)

Shirish Kunder has finished shooting for his 15-minute short film Kriti and is all set to roll with his feature film, titled Mrs Serial Killer. With this heroine-centric film, he moves away from the formula of Jaan-E-Mann and Joker, which had male actors driving the films. This time, his protagonist is female and she is fierce. Reveals an insider, “Priyanka Chopra, Parineeti Chopra and Katrina Kaif are being considered for the female protagonist’s role.”

Shirish tells us that MSK, which he has penned, requires a great performer. “It’s a crime thriller, set at a hill station with a 40-day shooting schedule. I plan to start shooting at the end of the year as the story is set against a cold, wintry background. I require an actress, who is a performer. It’s a dark, edgy, and fast-paced script. It’s a Gone Girls-meets-Breaking Bad. The female protagonist is a good person who has to do bad things for a good purpose — to protect her loved ones. She has layers to her, I am very excited as this is my space. It’s where my heart belongs. Kriti is a prelude to this film. People don’t expect this kind of cinema from me.”

Any actress in mind? He says, “I haven’t approached anybody, but the bigger the actress, the bigger my budget will be. And I feel awkward approaching anybody. I am looking for a producer who will get me the actress. I recently completed a script-writing course in Los Angeles. We have to read our scripts to other students attending the course and they critically appraise our scripts. People from Russia, Italy, Spain... whoever heard the script loved it and said it has a universal tone — it can be set in any part of the world. That has given me the confidence to go ahead.”