Prashant Raj Sachdev in his get-up as Jai and Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar Singh in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay (below)Bappi Lahiri

Call it strange, stupid or smart, Ram Gopal Varma has made two more new decisions about his make-or-break movie Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay.

After the bang-bang announcements starring names like Amitabh Bachchan (Gabbar), Mohanlal (Thakur), Ajay Devgan (Veeru), Sushmita Sen (Radha), Abhishek Bachchan (item boy) and Urmila Matondkar (item girl), come the hush-hush revelations. First, unknown model Prashant Raj Sachdev will play Jai (Bachchan in the original, of course).

And, yesterday’s melody man Bappi Lahiri will compose the music for tomorrow’s film!

The Telegraph caught up with the two new members of Team Sholay.

Bappida’s beats

He was working on the music of Anjan Chaudhuri’s Deshadrohi and a Rituparna Sengupta-starrer called Babli when he got a call from Ram Gopal Varma to score for his Sholay. And the Dada of Disco was back.

“I have always admired the music sense of Mr Varma in films like Rangeela and we wanted to work with each other for a long time,” says Bappida.

Apart from the Mehbooba o mehbooba track, which will be remixed by Ganesh Hegde for the film, Bappida will compose all new tracks to match all the RD Burman songs in the Sholay.

“I have already recorded two of the songs, puropuri amar styley (absolutely in my style),” says the bejeweled musician. “The new Yeh dosti number has been sung by Shaan and Kunal Ganjawala while Shaan and Sunidhi Chauhan have sung the substitute for the Koi haseena track. I am currently working on the Holi song.”

If Bappi the music director is making a comeback, Bappi the singer is creating waves. After his chartbuster Mumbai nagariya in Taxi No. 9211, he has sung the title track for the much-awaited A.R. Rahman musical Guru. “Rahman likes my voice very much and he called me to ask whether I would like to sing this really rocking song for Abhishek Bachchan,” Bappida reveals. “We had a great time recording the song all night long at Rahman’s studio. It has also been picturised very well.”

After son Abhishek, Bappida has sung for father Amitabh.“It is for a Vishal-Shekhar song in Ravi Chopra’s production Bhootnath,” he reveals. “It feels great that I have sung for two generations of actors. Earlier I had sung for Amitabh in Giraftaar and now I sang for Abhishek in Guru. I had sung for Sunil Dutt in Zakhmi and for Sanjay Dutt in Thanedaar. I sang for Dharmendra in Naukar Biwi Ka and for Sunny Deol in Ghayal.”

Calling it “the biggest blockbuster of 2007”, Bappi Lahiri is convinced Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay will mark a new chapter in his career.

Prashant’s punch

Twenty-six-year-old Prashant Raj Sachdev had booked his tickets for Los Angeles when he got a call from Varma’s office to audition for his Sholay. “I was planning for an international modelling career,” says the Delhi-raised model who won the Mr Model of the Universe crown in Ecuador in 2005. “But this one call changed everything and here I am, a Bollywood actor!”

Varma auditioned Prashant and straightaway cast him as Jai, replacing Mohit Ahlawat, the first actor to have been cast in his Sholay.

“I am a big Sholay fan and have watched the film four times,” the model-turned-actor says. “Now that I am playing Mr Bachchan’s role there will always be a dagger hanging over my head but, honestly speaking, Jai of 1975 and Jai of 2006 are very different.”

AXN watchers must have already got a taste of Prashant as he and buddy Sahil Shroff represented India in the reality game show, The Amazing Race Asia, and were in top form till they were eliminated in the fifth episode last week. “We took a different vehicle for one particular leg of the race and they felt we flouted the rule,” offers Prashant. “But nowhere did the clue mention that we needed to take a particular form of transport. We were really pissed off as we were just getting into the groove and working on our decision-making skills.”

Now, all the decisions Prashant has to take is on the sets of RGV Ki Sholay, from where he was talking to The Telegraph. “I know it’s very daunting but everyone has been very understanding and very supportive. Come on, look at the number of films people like Mr Bachchan, Mohanlal and Ajay Devgan have done. But I am shooting with Ajay for a week now and he’s really a very cool guy.”

Prashant is undecided whether he would like to do more films after Sholay, but he does want to make the most of this experience.

And while he is known as a complete chatterbox, you remind him that he would soon romance Sushmita Sen on screen and all Prashant can offer is a muffled laugh.