Hiren Kotwani (DNA; June 3, 2019)

The teaser of Article 15, which recently released, has resonated with cinegoers and also got Ayushmann Khurrana a lot of praise for his portrayal of a no-nonsense cop. Given that it’s an honour for every mainstream actor to essay a police officer on screen, Ayushmann, too, has always desired to don the khaki uniform for a movie role.

What is interesting to note is that he sought his inspiration from the characters of Amitabh Bachchan’s Vijay Khanna (Zanjeer, 1973), Aamir Khan’s Ajay Singh Rathod (Sarfarosh, 1999) and Manoj Bajpayee’s Samar Pratap Singh (Shool, 1999). That’s why he preferred to wait for a strong subject. And going by the response the teaser has generated, it looks like it has been worth the wait. Ayushmann essays a unique cop who’s zealous about bringing about a change in society in this Zee Studios  production.

The AndhaDhun actor says, “My idols for playing a cop on screen are Amitabh Bachchan sir from Zanjeer, Manoj Bajpai sir from Shool and Aamir Khan sir from Sarfarosh. I wanted to go the realistic way and show the vulnerable side of cops. More than that I was keen to meet real cops and then portray my character in a certain way. Thankfully, I was in touch with lot of real-life officers... one of which is Manoj Malviya — a senior IPS officer from Delhi. It is part of the bucket list for every actor to play a cop on screen and I was waiting for the right script.”

The investigation drama premieres at the 10th London Indian Film Festival later this month. The Anubhav Sinha directorial will open the fest.