By Hindustan Times
Back in 2004, the world of Wasseypur in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, made headlines after greater than a dozen criminals attacked the home of notorious gangster Faheem Khan and opened fire from their AK 47 rifles. While Faheem escaped by jumping off the roof, his bodyguard Binod and brother-in-law Seraj were caught within the firing.
Seven years later, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has recreated this real-life attack because the opening sequence of his upcoming film, Gangs Of Wasseypur. Although the makers remain tight-lipped about it, insiders reveal that Nawazuddin Siddiqui portrays the feared gangster.
“The entire setting and treatment of the hole sequence is identical to the true incident. Anurag has gone all out to ensure that the scene doesn’t look fake and the end result was fantastic,” says a crewmember.
When contacted, Kashyap says, “All artistic endeavors are inspired from real-life incidents. Having said that, let me clarify that Gangs of Wasseypur may be a piece of fiction, however it has an excessively graphic opening sequence.”
However, it’s not yet clear whether reel-life Faheem dies within the attack or escapes unhurt. The real-life Faheem continues to be alive and believed to be in jail in Jharkhand. Kashyap describes this five-hour film, the longest-running entry at this year’s Cannes festival, as “a Bollywood-influenced gangster epic, that is part Western and part documentary.”
It follows three generations of coal and scrap-trade mafia gangs in eastern India, obsessive about Hindi cinema. The film stars Piyush Mishra, Manoj Bajpayee, Reema Sen and Tigmanshu Dhulia.
