Dia Mirza: I love competition

Former beauty queen and actress Dia Mirza, who started her stint as a producer with the insipid Love Breakups Zindagi in 2011, has pulled a casting coup of sorts by roping in Vidya Balan to play the lead in her upcoming home production Bobby Jasoos.

She will be producing the film along side her beau and business partner Sahil Sangha while the shoot will commence mid-November and the film is expected to release by April next year.

Dia and Sahil discuss their new film with Rajul Hegde.

Your first film, Love Breakups Zindagi, was a romance drama while Bobby Jasoos is of a completely different genre.

Sahil: The rom-com formula is one of the hardest to crack, though we did get a lot of appreciation for the way we managed to put out our first film.

After Love Breakups Zindagi, we made a conscious decision to allow ourselves to change gears a bit.

We wanted to get into a space to tell more challenging stories.

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Why did you choose Vidya Balan to play the detective? Was she your first choice?

Dia: There's nobody else who can play Bobby better than Vidya.

I love Vidya. I love her as a human being.

I think she has a rare and remarkable quality of being rooted in truth and reality. That reflects in the way she just owns each of her performances.

I don't believe there's any other female actor in the country with her range. I can't imagine anyone else playing the part, not even myself.

She was the first and only person we approached for this film.

Was it difficult to convince Vidya to do the film?

Dia: Thankfully not. It was not just the concept we approached her with, we took a complete script to her.

So it kind of gave her an idea and we were lucky that she got back to us in a month.

Are you planning to be in front of the camera as well?

Dia: The films that Vidya and I have done together have done so well (Parineeta and Lage Raho Munnabhai). I may do a brief part (smiles).

What about the male star in the film?

Sahil: This is the kind of story that doesn't need a big male star.

Is Bobby a Bond-like spy?

Dia: Oh no! She's not the gun-toting sort. James Bond is a global spy; Bobby belongs to a little world of her own.

What's exciting about the film is that we'll see a woman play such a role for the first time.

Everybody has a preconceived notion of what a detective film should be. In many ways Bobby Jasoos breaks that mould.

Are you worried that other filmmakers are coming out with detective films too next year?

Dia: Many filmmakers are developing scripts in this genre.

Collective consciousness is at play. Everyone wants to tell the detective story, it's a happy coincidence.

I love competition. Knowing every one of these filmmakers, I am confident that they will all have an individualistic take on this genre.

Every year we have scores of love stories and action films in theatres, and next year will see detective ones. We're comfortable about it because it's a woman detective and we are not telling the run-of-the-mill detective story.

Detective stories haven’t really worked before…

Sahil: As an audience, we should be happy we're getting something new and that credible filmmakers are involved in this genre.

As the producer of Bobby Jasoos, there's no fear.

Because Vidya and Ranbir (Kapoor in Jagga Jasoos) playing detectives can’t be in the same world.

They are going to be playing two completely different versions of the genre. 

Is it true that you have postponed your marriage ahead (to next year) to accommodate the film?

Dia: We will start shooting for the film in November so we can’t get married this year.

Nothing is fixed yet except for the fact that we will get married (smiles).