The “Kurbaan” promos feature only Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor while Vivek Oberoi is hardly to be seen. Director Rensil D’Silva says his role is so deeply affiliated to the plot’s suspense that if exposed too much, it can give away the story.

“It’s a very strange situation. Vivek is one of the central characters. But almost every scene of his is a dead give away of the suspense. What do we do?”

The director discussed the problem with Vivek. “I’ve spoken to Vivek and explained the dilemma. He was cool with not being featured in the promos that much. He said to do whatever is right for the film because when the film opens the truth about the extent of his role will be out,” D’Silva told IANS.

“Vivek has worked very hard in the film. He had to acquire a true New Yorker’s accent and not the kind Indians get at the John F. Kennedy airport. We had a couple of New Yorkers on the sets to coach him.
“He’s got the NY accent bang-on. It’s not a borough-specific accent. It’s a general New York twang and Vivek is superb with it,” he added.

D’Silva shoots down the rumours that Vivek has a cameo in “Kurbaan”?

“Not true at all. Vivek is in 80 percent of the film. He’s central to the drama. He was in my room in Philadelphia every night to discuss his diction, dialogues and looks. I see his career at the cusp of something really exciting,” said the direc

The makers of the film ‘Aladdin’ were quite apprehensive about the key sequence in their film which required the character played by legendry Amitabh Bachchan to kneel before Sanjay Dutt’s character and also touch his feet. The scene was an important part of the film’s narrative where Genius-the Genie (played by Big B) surrenders before the ringmaster (played by Sanjay Dutt).

Sujoy and others feared how exactly millions of Amitabh Bachchan fans would accept this scene. For Sanjay Dutt too it was challenging since Amitabh Bachchan is too big a name to be kneeling down.

But, given the professionalism of the Shehenshah of Bollywood everything went on perfectly as Big B was game of the scene and quite well understood its importance. The film does convey the message of good’s win over evil and the scene heightens the impact of the final result.

“That’s the beauty of working with Mr. Bachchan”, says Sujoy, “He lets himself be driven as wanted by the director. We were a bunch of kids wondering how to approach Sir to do this scene and there he was game to do whatever that went well with the character. He has always stated that once he is committed to a project, he doesn’t protest on anything. This is why we could can such a crucial scene without any hindrance. It is indeed one of the highlights of the film.”

A source says, “Riteish wasn’t keen on playing a gay character. It’s a risk for any mainstream Bollywood actor to take on such a role. He politely refused, but he was disappointed that his one of his best friends, who had many films on the floors, had offered him an insignificant role.”

Director Rensil says, We will be releasing Kurbaan on November 20 as no other film was scheduled to release on that day. We want to avoid a clash with any other film. Why not release solo when we have an empty slot? Clashes don’t help anyone.”