According to Neil Nitin Mukesh, filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra who is producing Wazir was so impressed with his performance that he changed the name of the film to his character! “When the film was offered to me, at that time it was titled ‘Ek Aur Ek Do’… After I finished shooting, I got a call from Vidhu sir and he said ‘What have you done?’ I asked him if he was not happy with my performance. He said, ‘Happy? I am changing the name of my film to Wazir now,’” said Neil recently to a media portal.
In his eight years long career Neil may have played various negative characters, but the actor said the role he has in upcoming film Wazir is his darkest portrayal yet. “Wazir is nothing but dark, he mocks and enjoys somebody else’s pain. This is my darkest portrayal yet. I myself was quite shocked that I played this character. He is very unpredictable… Whether it’s his face, voice or look, I had to work extremely hard for this,” shared Neil.
Neil said it was extremely tough to intimidate Amitabh Bachchan, his co-star in the film, even though he was playing a character. “When I got to know that my character would be intimidating Bachchan sir’s character that was scary. His name is itself intimidating so getting on screen trying to intimidate him was not an easy task. But, that’s where the acting kicks in. I did not want my nervousness to affect his performance so I made sure all the butterflies which were fluttering in the stomach, remained there and never came out on the face,” he said.
Wazir marks Neil’s second outing with Nambiar, as the duo previously worked in David. The film tells the story of two unusual friends – a paralysed chess grandmaster, played by megastar Amitabh Bachchan and a grief-stricken ATS officer, played by Farhan Akhtar, brought together by a twist of fate. Wazir is scheduled to release on January 8.