Kangana Ranaut, Prachi Desai, Milan Luthria, Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi and Rajat Arora

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 2, 2019)

It’s been almost a decade since Milan Luthria’s gangster drama Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai opened in the theatres on July 30, 2010, yet it still resonates with the audience. The director reveals that it was conceived in 2008, the same year that he got married. “The offer came out of the blue and I gave my nod because I liked the idea. But just when the film was to flag off, we were hit by the recession and could no long afford to make the film,” he shares.

Even when the project was revived, it was difficult to get the dates of all the actors—from Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi who played the protagonists, underworld kingpin Sultan Mirza and his right-hand, Shoaib Khan, to Kangana Ranaut, Mirza’s actress-lover Rehana, Prachi Desai cast as Shoaib’s sweetheart Mumtaz after Milan was impressed by her performance in Rock On!! and Randeep Hooda as ACP Agnel Wilson. “On the first day of the shoot, I was in the van with Ajay, and five minutes before he stepped out, he asked me how I wanted him to play Mirza. I told him I cast him for the intensity in his eyes and the way he walked. Responding with a 'Okay, let’s go,' he strode out, dressed from head-to-toe in white. “A hush descended on the set, the awe was palpable,” Milan reminisces.

He however wasn’t happy with the first shot. “I thought Ajay looked like Malik from RGV’s Company,” Milan confides, and pointed out to the actor that this was not a brooding gangster but a flamboyant character in love with a movie star. “Okay got it, roll camera,” Ajay nodded. And from that moment he was Sultan Mirza.

Emraan was a perfect foil to him but Milan admits that everyone around warned the actor against doing a negative role and taking on Ajay. “Emraan read the script two-three times before telling me that he’d do the film only if he could be the bad guy unapologetically. We were happy to comply since we’d only been trying to appease him with excuses and justifications for his character’s betrayal,” says Milan.

Kangana earned the nickname “chameleon” from her director because of the ease with which she flitted from one getup to the next. Her Rehana was an amalgamation of many actresses who’d been courted by real-life gangsters. She gifts Sultan Mirza a watch in the film which runs on his pulse beat and invites the cryptic comment, “I hope my pulse doesn’t stop before this does” which is a pointer to what is to come.

“In the original script, Shoaib tries to kill Sultan, misses and runs away. To stop the bloodbath that follows, the other dons of the underworld get the two together and make them swear on the Quran that they will not go after each other,” reveals Milan. The film eventually ended with Shoaib firing and hitting target. Sultan falls in Rehana’s lap and shows her the watch, telling her his time was up.

“The last shot was of him looking sightlessly up at the sky but Ajay pointed out that it would be impossible for him to keep his eyes open against the glare of the sun. So then, we had him falling to his knees and looking straight at Shoaib as he exits, stamping on a poster with his face emblazoned on it, along with the slogan, ‘Sultan Mirza zindabad,’” Milan recounts.

The film made Ajay’s Sultan Mirza a cult figure and proved Emraan’s brilliance as an actor too. It remains Milan’s most unforgettable film. “Even today, at a party, I’m introduced as the guy who directed Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai ,” he smiles. “To quote one of Rajat Arora’s famous dialogues from the film, ‘Iss vajah se log hamein dua mein yaad rakhenge.’”