Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; June 3, 2019)

Over the next two months, Sanjay Gupta will roll out his next, a gangster drama, set in the ’80s and ’90s. The story revolves around the key events that turned Bombay into Mumbai, including the mills downing shutters, the murder of a key businessman, the nexus between politicians, cops, the underworld and the business fraternity, and the drama around the eventual changes in the city’s landscape.

It has taken the filmmaker six years to return to his favourite genre with a project that he had been aiming to make since 2013. His last film in the gangster space was Shootout At Wadala (2013) with John Abraham, after which he made Jazbaa (2015) with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Irrfan, and Kaabil (2017) with Hrithik Roshan.

Talking about his next project, the filmmaker told BT, “It’s a space that has always intrigued me. The story of this city that we live in has its roots in several key events like the mills shutting down and the first ever murder of an industrialist, which became one of the key factors that changed Bombay into Mumbai. I’ve always enjoyed documenting the history of this city’s underbelly. It’s taken me a while to research the subject and put everything in place. We’re yet to finish the casting, but we’re going on floors in July-August this year.”