Pooja Bhatt has acquired the cinema rights for Abheek Barua’s book, ‘City of Death‘, and will produce the film. She will also play the lead role – that of an alcoholic cop.
A Mumbai Mirror report quotes Pooja as saying, “My friend Kaustav Narayan Niyogi (director of Cabaret), recommended the book and even as I was reading it, I wanted to get back on the set to play this character. This came as an electric shock because that part of my life was no longer a priority. I called my dad to make this guilty confession and he assured me that it was a good feeling, as did my producer-partner, Sheel Kumar.”
Pooja has roped in director Digvijay Sisodia to work on the script, and to later direct the film. They hope to begin production by end of this year, and will likely shoot in Kolkata. “It’s a beautiful but decaying city and its crumbling facade serves as a visual metaphor for what the characters are going through, juxtaposing the moral decay against the physical decay to expose the family unit as the biggest enemy through an overindulgent father, a depressive mother, a sex addict brother, and a lover with a past.”
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As per the Mumbai Mirror report, the lead character in the book – Sohini Sen – will be called Rita Brown in the film, and is pitched as an Anglo-Indian investigator from the Crime Branch of the police. As in the book, Rita Brown is an alcoholic who spikes her morning tea with Vodka. Pooja Bhatt, who came out as an alcoholic recently, and has been taking steps to talk about her addiction, commented on the role. “The joke is that I’m making a comeback as an alcoholic cop after I have decided to quit alcohol.”
Other cast and crew details haven’t been announced yet.