Arunoday Singh & Randeep Hooda in ‘Jism 2’

After months of speculation regarding who will play the two men in “Jism 2”, the news is finally out. Pooja Bhatt has zeroed in on Arunoday Singh and Randeep Hooda to play the men opposite Sunny Leone in the sequel to the John-Bipasha starrer. Shooting for the film will begin in Jaipur on April 1.
Says Pooja, “Sunny has two men in her life. While one is a man from her past, the other is a man from her present.The two men who have been finalized for the lead roles are Arunoday Singh and Randeep Hooda. Both the actors have signed on the project.” However, the director is clear about not wanting this casting to be pitched as a news of Arunoday and Randeep working together in “Jism 2” after the latter replaced the former in “Heroine”.
Ask the director what prompted her to decide on this casting and she says, “I was blown away by Randeep’s cop act in “Jannat 2”. There is so much of angst in him. In “Jism 2”, he plays Kabir (even John’s character was called Kabir in “Jism”). Pressure, yes. But a good kind
He is a lonely guy who is dark, dangerous and lives by his own rules. There are no greys in his life — it is either black or white. He can’t take excuses and is very austere. His character has a huge room for dark silences.”
Arunodoy’s character, in contrast, is that of a swashbuckler. “He is someone who can sort out everything for Sunny. Both characters have a very different kind of approach towards life. If Arunoday is light, Randeep is darkness. If Arunoday is measured attack, Randeep is a cryptic secret. I wasn’t aware that Arunoday might play Hamlet in another Hindi adaptation of the Shakespeare play. For me, Arunoday rocked in “Yeh Saali Zindagi”. I have also seen him in this liquor ad which convinced me that he would pull off the role of Ayaan with élan. Both Arunodoy and Randeep are not obviously sexy. Their six packs lie in their head and not the beefed-up bodies,” the director says.
Speaking about the film, Arunoday, says, “After I first heard the story last week, I found it highly exciting and I agreed to doing it. The character is not one dimensional. I have watched “Jism” once and liked the film. Of course, there is a pressure while doing this sequel. But it is a good kind of pressure. That’s the best thing about this job.”
What about the fact that he will begin shooting the film on April Fool? “Well, I am a fool. May be like the fool from King Lear. Jokes apart, I’m fine with shooting on any date apart from my birthday,” Arunoday says.
Shooting for the film is supposed to begin on April 1 in Jaipur. Pooja, however, doesn’t want Sunny and Arunoday to be dancing around palaces in Jaipur. “As an actor, I have done all that with Shah Rukh when I shot my film in Jaipur. I can’t be repeating all that again now. I want to tap the timelessness of Jaipur and use a modern, India-forward palette to display the same,” she insists. Though the Jaipur locations have already been finalized, Pooja isn’t keen to reveal them because of security reasons. After kick-starting the schedule and shooting in Jaipur for 10 days, the unit will shift to Delhi to shoot outdoor sequences. “I might be shooting in and around Chanakyapuri and the Hauz Khaz village. Within a week’s time, I shall be finalizing the foreign locations. I am toying between Sri Lanka and Czechoslovakia. Right now, there is a cold wave there and, hence, I am a little apprehensive. I have to wrap up work soon because I am eyeing an August release,” she signs off.