Emraan Hasmi with Nisha Kothari in The Killer

How did you land a directorial assignment with Vishesh Films?

Both my co-director Hasnain Hyderabadwala and I have been working in this industry for the last 12 years. We assisted Dharmesh Darshan on Raja Hindustani, Mela and Dhadkan. Then we worked on the post-production for two Mahesh Bhatt productions. Then we were associate directors for Koi? Mil Gaya and Krrish. Around 10 months ago, Bhattsaab called us to his office and gave us the basic idea of The Killer. He knew we were looking for a break together and asked us to develop the story.

From the promos, The Killer looks a frame-by-frame copy of Collateral?

The Killer is, of course, inspired by Collateral. The similarity is in the fact that a killer is in the backseat of a cab and has taken the driver hostage. But we have completely Indianised the film. Personally, I found Collateral very boring; I fell asleep while watching the movie. The film was very unidimensional. They made the mistake of casting Tom Cruise as the killer. Our film is from the point of view of the cab driver, a common man taken hostage unexpectedly.

How have you Indianised the concept?

We have added a lot of bhaigiri to Irrfan?s character. Also the love angle between Emraan and Nisha is pretty strong. They don?t meet by chance.

Did you have to take Emraan Hashmi and Irrfan because of the Bhatts?

No, we had thought it would be easy to rope in Emraan because it is the Bhatt camp. But he was hard to get and we were lucky that Emmi did the film. As for Irrfan, Hasnain had worked with him before and only he could have brought about that absolute weirdness in the character. He is not a psycho, rather a corporate killer who walks around in Armanis. With his timing, his style and his dialogue delivery, Irrfan belongs to a different world altogether. In fact, for both Emraan and Irrfan, we added their characteristics to the characters.

How did you wriggle Nisha Kothari out of the Varma camp?

She was just there, in the right place at the right time. We were looking for a hot-bodied chick with an innocent face. When we were discussing the script with Bhattsaab, Nisha was in the other room talking to Mukesh Bhatt. She is like a child woman and suited us perfectly.

Apart from an Abbas-Mustan, we hardly have director duos around...

Hasnain and I have been best friends for years. We are a stronger team together. There are differences but we don?t show that to our cast. We may travel different doors but we do end up at the same place.

Wouldn?t you have been happier had you made an original film?

We have shown Killer to a lot of test audiences and they have found it engrossing. Some of them have seen Collateral and feel Killer is better than the original. Everyone?s loved the chemistry between the two men in the film, who come from two different planets.