Matrabhoomi director, Manish Jha, turns actor for Bejoy Nambiar

Bejoy Nambiar, has been left with no choice but to film the three stories of his new film David in reverse. He has just completed the third story featuring Tamil star Vikram and Tabu. Now he moves into the second story this July with Vinay Virmani and Lara Dutta in the cast, though the two are not paired together. The first story with Neil Nitin Mukesh in the lead has been the most problematic. Though Neil green lighted the project, he is yet to find dates for it, as he’s busy shooting for a horror thriller with his lady-love Sonal Chauhan. Says a source, “Neil favoured 3G, the film that was shot in Fiji. Away from prying eyes in Mumbai, Neil and Sonal got to know one another really well.” Back home, rather than twiddling his thumb Bejoy Nambiar has decided to shoot another story with a very unusual cast. Remember Manish Jha? He made the highly-acclaimed frighteningly futuristic film on female foeticide Matrabhoomi in 2005 and then just when he had the world at his feet he vanished. He now returns in a rather unusual avatar. Manish Jha plays a stellar role in Bejoy Nambiar’s David whose casting gets more interesting with each passing week. Nambiar has already cast the Southern superstar Vikram, along with Tabu in the first of the three stories that would be the third story in David. He’s about to shoot the second story for David with Akshay Kumar’s protégé Vinay Virmani playing the title song. While Lara Dutta plays a pivotal role in this segment it is director Manish Jha whose casting seems unusual. Confirming the unorthodox casting Bejoy says, “Yes, Manish Jha makes his acting debut in my David. He had done theatre extensively in the past but never acted in a movie. I found him to be perfect for one of the roles.” The trend of directors turning to acting has caught on. Sudhir Misha and Anurag Kashyap have played roles in the past. Recently, Tigmanshu Dhulia played the main villain in Gangs Of Wasseypur. Bejoy says he cast Manish Jha because he got the point of the part right away. Says Bejoy, “Manish looked physically perfect for the part I have in mind for him. Lara Dutta has a very special role in the episode featuring Vinay Virmani.” Other than Lara, the other actress that Bejoy has cast in the episode with Vinay is Sheetal Menon who was paired with Rajeev Khandelwal in Bejoy’s first film Shaitaan. Bejoy will shoot the third story (which would actually be the first segment of David) whenever Neil has the dates.