NEW DELHI: Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt has been roped in to play the role of a "roaring villain" against Ranbir Kapoor in 'Shamshera.'
Yash Raj Films took to Twitter to make the revelation, writing, "We've got an ultimate casting coup! Our upcoming action adventure #Shamshera has a roaring villain against #RanbirKapoor. It's the one & only #SanjayDutt | @duttsanjay | @karanmalhotra21 | @ShamsheraMovie"
The 'Sanju' star will appear in a never seen before avatar of a dacoit in the Karan Malhotra-directorial.
'Shamshera' is set to go on floors by the end of this year and the shooting is expected to wrap by mid-2019.
Earlier, a teaser of the project was released which showed Ranbir leading an army of dacoits, and delivering the punch line of the film in a husky voice: "Karam se dacait, dharam se azaad".
"'Shamshera' is exactly the film I was looking for. While growing up watching Hindi commercial cinema, I had an image of what a film hero should be doing. 'Shamshera' allows me to do everything that I had imagined and it's a very exciting project for me," Ranbir said in a statement.
Talking about 'Sanju', Ranbir Kapoor had said that it was not an "acting gig" for him but something personal as it gave him the opportunity to be a part of the story of someone he admires.
"I was always a Sanjay Dutt fan. So for me, it was like a fan trying to play his icon on-screen.
The hardest thing was to give confidence to myself that I can play this man. I did not have the confidence, the courage, understanding or the acting chops to do it," Ranbir had told reporters.
The actor said he had known Dutt as a family friend and even though the "Vaastav" star seemed like a familiar person, he was shocked to know some of the details about his life when director Rajkumar Hirani narrated the script.
(with input from agencies)