People of my age cannot hold the plot through the entire length of a film. Nobody is interested in seeing me play the lead,” says actor Om Puri. Nonetheless, he is still a strong presence in supporting roles. In Baabarr, which releases on September 11, Puri portrays a potbellied constable from Uttar Pradesh. The 60-year-old actor visited Delhi for the film promotion on Wednesday, accompanied by director Ashuu Trikha and co-actors Sushant Singh and Urvashi Sharma. “My character is corrupt, he has risen in the ranks from the bottom and knows how the system works. I try to bring in subtle humour to the role,” he says.

The film is about a boy called Baabarr from a poor neighbourhood of Lucknow who is initiated into crime at the age of 12. Over the years, he becomes a dreaded goon from UP. “The story is not about the rise of a criminal but the evolution of crime in society. To make the subject look real, I’ve shot in typical Lucknow homes as well as in slaughter houses,” says Trikha, whose earlier projects Alag (2006) and Deewanapan (2001) had sunk without a trace.

Puri says he signed the film because it raises the issue of children turning to crime. He will soon be off to shoot for the sequel to East is East, a 1999 Hollywood film which was nominated for four BAFTA awards. “This film is called West is West and will be directed by Farhan Akhtar. I am still playing the Pakistani father who is settled in Britain. We start with the shooting in October in London and Chandigarh,” he says.