Three blind men rob a bank. That premise led to a gripping heist drama in filmmaker Vipul A Shah’s Aankhen (2002). With his next, Hisaab, the director promises a bank robbery “with a twist”. The cherry on the top is its cast — Jaideep Ahlawat and Shefali Shah.

“After Aankhen, I always wanted to make another film on a bank heist, but I was not getting the right idea. Hisaab is as unique a story as Aankhen was — a kind of heist film that India has not seen before. It’s taken us a long time to write it. Comparisons with Aankhen are unavoidable, though there is nothing common between the two films [except] the bank robbery. So, we wanted to make something that had strong content,” shared the director.

An ace up Vipul’s sleeve is the casting, as he has reunited Ahlawat and Shefali after their tender love story, Three Of Us (2023). In them, the director found the strong performers he was seeking.

“Jaideep and Shefali are two phenomenal actors who can deliver performances with ease and depth. [No matter] whether they have done Three Of Us or 30 films together, they will be a pair to watch out for. The scenes light up when they are together, and it’s beautiful for me as a director to watch it happen.”

With the shoot complete, Hisaab is being readied for a theatrical release. The director will zero in on a release date after his production, The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond — a film through which he wants “to be the voice of the victims” — arrives in cinemas.