MUMBAI: Now that his book "The Barabanki Narcos: Busting India's Most Notorious Drug Cartel" is set to be made into a web series, former police officer Aloke Lal lays out his wishlist when we ask him which actor should play him on screen.
Lal, who lead the operation of opium trade bust in Uttar Pradesh in the eighties, would love to see Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao or Vicky Kaushal play his character on screen.
"It is the job of the casting director to decide, and tough for me to say (but) there are three actors I admire, and I think all of them as a perfect suite for the character. Rajkummar Rao, though he does not look like me, is a fine and talented actor. So if we do not go by physical resemblance, he could play me on screen. Vicky Kaushal, on the other hand, carries a uniform very well. He is admired by the audience. Then there is that actor who played a police officer in ‘Article 15' -- Ayushmann Khurrana. He reminded me of my younger days. In that film, the way those remote village areas were shown, it reminded me of the time I was posted in Barabanki. As a police officer, he looked very convincing," Lal told IANS.
"I was in my thirties when I was posted (in Barabanki). So I wish someone from that age group should play the character. I admire them all," added the retired police officer.
The former IPS officer, who was posted in Barabanki district of UP in 1984, lays outthe reason he wrote the book: "I was genuinely concerned about the matter of drug addiction and how the youth of any society gets into it. The addiction has a lot to do with the accessibility to drugs. When youngsters get addicted, it not only destroys them but their families and eventually the nation. Youth must be protected to build the nation. So once I was posted in Barabanki district and I realised the ground reality, it drove me to write the book, tell the story of my life experience."
"The Barabanki Narcos" will be produced by Prabhleen Kaur and the show is in its scripting stage right now.
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