Abhishek not in 'DMD' because of our friendship: Rohan Sippy

Rohan and Abhishek worked together in 'Kutch Naa Kaho' and 'Bluffmaster'. Abhishek plays a cop in 'Dum Maro Dum', a suspense thriller set in the backdrop of Goa. The film, releasing on April 22, also stars Bipasha Basu, Prateik and marks the Bollywood debut of Rana Daggubati.

The director says he decided to cast Abhishek because he fit the character.
"It would be unfair to Abhishek to say that we are together because of our friendship. I am very selfish when it comes to picking up my characters and I won't take anyone who does not suit the role. I was lucky that Abhishek fit the role perfectly," Rohan told PTI.
The director, however, agrees that their friendship made things easier on set.
"Our friendship does help. It is like shorthand on sets because having worked together on two movies we understand each other, which makes you work faster," he adds.
Abhishek has played the role of a cop in many other films, most popular being the 'Dhoom' series but Rohan is not worried about comparisons.

"Dhoom is a great franchise. It is more of an action genre but we are pegging our film as a fast paced suspense thriller. It has an ensemble feel to it and Abhishek is one of the few actors in younger generation who can pull of a cop's role. His image was a big help in portraying the character but it will show a different side of him," says Rohan.
The film has been in headlines for some wrong reasons. Veteran actor Dev Anand is reportedly unhappy with the remake of 'Dum Maro Dum' but Rohan is non-committal about the controversy.

"I don't want to comment on the media reports. We had approached Saregama and they had the rights and allowed us to take the song in our movie. There is nothing else from our side. Rest is their internal matter and I don't want to add fuel to the fire," he says.
Picturised on Jinat Aman in 'Hare Rama, Hare Krishna', the song continues to be popular and was the inspiration behind Rohan's movie title. He, however, was careful that the new version, picturised on Deepika Padukone, had no reference to the original.

"We have grown up on the song. When you have a film about the drug culture there is no better song. But we have tried not to include anything that is referential to the old number be it clothes or music. The new version is about today's sub-culture," he added.
Asked about concern expressed by Goans that the movie portrays the tourism heaven in negative light, Rohan says the state serves only as a backdrop.

"The film is a suspense thriller. We are not making a documentary on Goa. In fact, the film propogates the thought that the state is heaven on earth. The backdrop could have been Mumbai but we have already seen so many movies on the city that we decided to move to Goa, which has been great fun," he adds.

It took him more than five years to come up with a new film post 'Bluffmaster' but Rohan says he wants to return to the studio soon again.

"I have been too lazy but I would love to be back in the studio soon and Sreedhar is writing the next script for me but for the time being it remains a suspense for me," he added.