Abhay Deol, who has shied away from action films, is ready to produce one set in the Iraqi city of Basra

Among the brawny Deols who swung fists and threw punches, Abhay was the exception. He went for the goofy laugh, the noir pose, the urban disillusionment. Finally, he is also falling for the swashbuckling charm of the genre that has propped up his extended family in Bollywood. Abhay is not acting in one, but he has set up a production house that is making an action film titled Basra, which is set in the Iraqi city by the same name.

“I have yet to make a formal announcement on this front but the production house is named Forbidden Films and we are going ahead with our first project,” says Deol, who is in the Capital for a discussion on the making of Dev.D at the 11th Osian’s Cinefan Festival.

“I honestly believed that I would direct a film before producing it,” says the 33-year-old. “But the debacle of Manorama Six Feet Under was an eye-opener. It was a well made film, but was badly distributed,” he says.

There is a successful production house in the family, Vijayta Films run by Sunny Deol, but Abhay struck gold in movies that can only be called adventurous in Bollywood. “I wouldn’t say that I know everything about producing films, but being nine films old, I can safely say I know what not to do,” he says. So what will the action film, directed by Navdeep Singh of Manorama Six Feet Under, be like? “The trend with Hindi action films is that they are always high on drama. My film will take a commercial genre like action and make it dark and edgy,” says Abhay. The film will star Shahana Goswami and Chitrangda Singh.

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