Apoorva Lakhia had been approached to make a film on Dawood Ibrahim and met the don's family as a part of the prep. During his conversations with his sister, Haseena Parkar, he learnt how they had lived in a 12-ft x12-ft chawl, their childhood and her relationship with her brothers. “I found her story more interesting and asked if I can make a film on her. She agreed after a week to 10 days. This was three-and-a-half years ago,“ reminisces Apoorva admitting that he'd struggled to find a studio to back the biopic but once he had the producer and his heroine, Shraddha Kapoor, on board, he finished the film in 42 days.

Quiz him on why he zeroed in on Shraddha who looks nothing like Haseena and he points out that after the first poster and promo this debate quickly died down. “I had seen her in Haider and knew she was my Haseena,“ asserts the maker who did three months of extensive rehearsals with the actress, which included costume trials, body suits and prosthetic tests. “We even hired an acting coach, Samar Singh, who analyses scripts, goes into the back stories of characters and develops them with the actors. Siddhanth Kapoor and Ankur Bhatia spent a month-and-a-half with him and Shraddha did a two-week extensive rehearsal with him and me. In those three months, we really got the character going.“

He adds that Siddhanth and Shraddha's sibling chemistry really helped the film, maintaining that in Hindi cinema, and maybe not even in Hollywood, a brother-sister duo has replayed their real-life roles. “Siddhanth's very protective about Shraddha while she looks up to him and that comes across on screen,“ says Apoorva, reminiscing about a scene in which Haseena and Dawood's father beats the latter with a belt in front of the family. “The noise of the fake belt sounded very real and Shraddha began crying. And in the scene where he meets her at night before leaving the country the lines are so emotional both Siddhanth and she started sobbing and we had to empty the set till they were composed.“

Sonakshi Sinha was initially supposed to play Haseena and the film was to roll last September. But John Abraham's injury pushed Force 2 forward. “So, one day Sonakshi and I sat down and decided she and I would do something else together in the future,“ says Apoorva.

Even though the film is yet to release, there's been talk of him glorifying Dawood and Haseena. He dismisses it saying it's easy to post something on the social media. “The film may be titled Haseena but it's not a one-sided view. There were 88 cases registered against her. I have done my research, met crime branch officers, lawyers and police commissioners, I have copies of the FIRs. But more than all this, the film is about a happily married girl with four kids whose life was affected by the shadow of her brother's personality. It's about what lead to her becoming Haseena Parkar,“ he says.

Flashback to 2013 and his last directorial, the Zanjeer remake, with Telugu superstar Ram Charan and Priyanka Chopra playing modern-day Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri. Where did he go wrong with that? “There were so many court cases that the budget just ballooned and it was impossible to make money. Also, people didn't like it anyway,“ Apoorva says.

When he's not making movies he goes globe-trotting and jumps out of planes. “My latest hobby is sky-diving. I've done 112-solo jumps,“ he beams. “Cooking is another passion. I took a year off after Mission Istaanbul to get a chef's degree from a French culinary institute in US. I also like playing cricket and play for two teams.“ So, what's next? “A long holiday for now,“ he laughs.