Imran Zahid (left) rehearses with Arvind Gaur in Delhi. Telegraph picture

Ranchi, April 21: Imagine playing a journalist flinging a shoe at the most powerful man in the world.

It is a once-in-a-lifetime role for Bokaro actor Imran Zahid, who gets to play Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi who flung his shoe on December 14, 2008, at then US President George W. Bush with a scream: “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog.”

The icing on the cake is that it is a Mahesh Bhatt production. Directed by Arvind Gaur, The Last Salute opens in New Delhi on May 14 with al-Zaidi himself as a part of the audience. Then the play travels to metros such as Calcutta and Mumbai and also Dubai.

The play is perhaps Zahid’s entry into the Bhatt camp, which is Bollywood insider parlance for film banner Vishesh Films owned by Bhatt and his brother Mukesh. Zahid has been handpicked by Bhatt for the lead role in his upcoming film, Chandu, a biopic based on the life of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student activist Chandrashekhar Prasad. Shooting begins this year.

The play had been scripted based on al-Zaidi’s book on the Gulf crisis and US intervention, the carpet bombings of Iraq and mass-scale civilian deaths leading to the shoe-throwing climax.

“I have lived through communal tension in 1984 at Bokaro and again in 1990 and 1991, and the insecurity that had gripped us in Bokaro. I can empathise with al-Zaidi as he watched with horror as thousands of children were orphaned and women widowed by US bombings at Iraq,” Zahid told The Telegraph on phone from New Delhi.

On a sombre note, he added: “The Iraqi journalist is of my age. But while I was enjoying myself, he was watching his country being bombed. He chose to study journalism and use the power of the media to raise his voice.”

No wonder, the actor is excited about meeting the man he plays. “I am in regular touch with al-Zaidi through e-mails,” he said, adding that the Iraqi journalist had said he was an admirer of Gandhi and India’s non-violent struggle for independence.

Back to the play, director Gaur was full of praise for Zahid. “He has the charisma to pull off the journalist’s role,” Gaur said.