Writer-Director Girish Malik, best known for his acclaimed 2014 debut drama, Jal, whose background score by Sonu Nigam and Bickram Ghosh was nominated to the Oscars for Best Original Score, is gearing up for his next film after a two-year hiatus.

Titled Torbaaz, the action-thriller is set in Afghanistan and is about how young children are being trained to become suicide bombers by being taught that killing is a virtue and there is glory in afterlife. After Jal, which received the National Film Award for Best Special Effects released, Girish was toying with another idea which had to be conceptualized on an international scale.

He got a call from Pakistani cricketer, Rameez Raja, who told him that he had thoroughly enjoyed Jal and wanted to discuss a concept which had been playing on his mind for a few days. Rameez described an army officer who had lost all hope till he finds a new purpose in some Afghani children prepping for war. “Rameez wanted to weave cricket into a story about reformation and I've played along,“ says Girish, refusing to divulge further details.

A year later, Girish set up a meeting with producer Raju Chadha, the Chairman of Wave Cinemas and filmmaker Rahul Mittra, CEO, Wave Cinemas, who believed Sanjay Dutt was best suited to play the army officer. “We met Sanju baba on Thursday, he loved the script and immediately gave a go-ahead admitting that he has become choosy about his projects. We were amazed at how organically he blended into the world of Torbaaz, he's an extremely intelligent and evolved actor,“ Girish raves.

The film will roll in mid-2017 in the Middle-East. It will be shot in Afghanistan too. In an interview with Mirror (September 1) Sanjay had admitted that now he wants to play age-appropriate roles. “The kinds of roles that Hollywood actors, Denzel Washington, Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner play,“ Sanjay had said.