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Lapataganj actor banking on upcoming films!
Making a comeback, Lapataganj-fame actor Abbas Khan will next be seen in not one but three films. The Lucknowite has already shot for Partho Ghosh’s ‘Dosti Zindabad’, Rahul Shukla’s ‘Is She Raju’ and has completed the first schedule for ‘The Legend of Peacock in Varanasi’.
“While Lapataganj was about to conclude in 2014, I suffered major back injury which kept me out of action for 2 years. I did ‘Super Cops v/s Super Villian’ on TV for six months and shot for 100 Days fame director Partho’s comeback film in Lucknow; it has been nearly two years but the film is yet to release. Now, I am banking on these three films,” he says on his short visit to his hometown.
He plays a naughty writer in Is She Raju while in The Legend of Peacock he plays a ‘dilphek aashiq’ (lover boy). “Legend… is an international project which will go to film festivals first and then will be released in cinemas. It’s about a foreigner girl who has travelled around the world and is in India for selfrealization. I play a hotel owner who falls in love with her and is madly after her. It’s loosely a comic version of an obsessed lover played by Shah Rukh Khan in Darr,” he says.
After playing the iconic role of Biji Pandey, in extremely popular show Lapataganj, he is looking for a good role on TV. “The roles I want to play are not coming my way. After you play a character which is a big hit, one gets typecast and similar roles come your way. I don’t want to do same thing again and again. I am not still able to break that mould. I wish to do a negative role but people are not coming out of my screen image,” he says.
He is in talk for a Star Plus show. “Since it has not been finalized, I can’t talk much about it. But, it’s a ‘kamal ka character’ of Noor Miyan. Let’s see how it shapes up,” he says.
Abbas was scheduled to shoot a film in Lucknow with Lapataganj co-actor Sucheta Khanna. “We wished to make a film and also opened a production company for that but the financers backed out. Things have not worked for me but this is a phase and I hope to come out strong from it. With these films in kitty and two more films in pipeline, I hope things will change. Rest, I have left all on Allah!” he says.
The actor says one of his next films is scheduled to be shot in Delhi and the other in Kanpur.
“UP has become the destination for film industry. One of our makers wants to shoot in Kanpur. The subsidy incentive is working very well and the state has become very film friendly. It’s a very happy scenario for people in UP,” he says on a signing off note.