Imran Zahid

It’s been known for a while that Bokaro boy Imran Zahid is Mahesh Bhatt’s blue-eyed boy, but now the filmmaker is sending him straight to heaven.

Imran will now make his Bollywood debut in Jannat 2, instead of Chandu, as was decided earlier.

“A journey begins. Launching Imran Zahid in Jannat 2, widely acknowledged as the most promising debutante of 2011,” said filmmaker Bhatt, a man not known to sprinkle compliments when undeserved.

Jannat 2, produced by Vishesh Films — the production company of the Bhatt brothers Mahesh and Mukesh — in association with Fox Studios, is all set to go on the floors early next month. The film, which the makers have clarified is “not a sequel to Jannat”, makes matters confusing by having the same lead and director as the original.

Directed by Kunal Deshmukh, serial-kisser Emraan Hashmi, who played a cricket match-fixer in the first, will give company to Prachi Desai, Imran Zahid and Randeep Hooda. Pritam is composing the film’s music. The film, shot mostly in Delhi, is slated for a global release in April 2012.

So what is it about? Jannat 2 is based on illegal arms deals in Delhi. It’s a pacy thriller where Imran and Randeep Hooda play cops and Emran Hashmi plays an informer.

Initially, the film was titled Informer, though at a later stage, Mahesh Bhatt changed the name to Jannat 2, Imran said.

That doesn’t mean that Imran’s original project with the Bhatts, Chandu, a biopic on slain JNU student activist Chandrashekhar Prasad, is in cold storage. “It is very much on,” Imran said, adding it would be released after Jannat 2.

Imran is kicked about playing the life of Chandrashekhar, shot down in 1997 while addressing a gathering in Bihar.

But he confessed that making his debut in Jannat 2 with big stars was his Bollywood dream-come-true.

“I’m very happy to make a big film debut with popular stars such as Emraan Hashmi and Prachi Desai. Their pairing worked so well in Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai. It’s important for a newcomer to get noticed. And this movie will make sure of that. I’ll be known before Chandu releases. I’m lucky to be working with Mahesh Bhatt,” he said.

A DAV Bokaro alumnus, Imran won a number of awards for acting while at school. He went off to New Delhi to do his B.Com after plus two. It was there that he joined Arvind Gaur’s troupe where he acted in numerous plays.

He said a chance meeting with Mahesh Bhatt at a media workshop at India House, Dubai, in May 2007, changed his life. “I couldn’t believe it when the eminent filmmaker offered me the lead in Chandu.”

Early this year, Bhatt cast him in his theatrical adaptation of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s book, The Last Salute, based on the author throwing his shoe at then US president, George W. Bush.