Marking the directorial debut of actor Sonu Sood, Friday film Fateh talks about the threats and hazards of cybercrime in a modern world. A t2 chat with the Bolly anti-hero — a hero in real life — who was recently in Calcutta for the promotions of his action entertainer.

Was direction on your mind for a long time? Why did you select Fateh as your debut directorial venture?

I feel it was a process. When you’re working with different directors, you tend to learn a lot. Being a technical guy — I’m an engineer — I was very keen to learn about things behind the camera, how sound was designed and so on. I used to assist the DoPs (director of photography). I didn’t know the technical aspects but I was always interested to know about them. I wrote dialogues for films but I never thought I’d direct one, though my friends and co-actors always felt that I had it in me.

Now finally it has happened. I would like to say it was one of the most exciting experiences in my life — trying to transform the vision I had in mind to reality. I was very focused about authenticity of action scenes, sound design and cinematography. It took me almost three years to make Fateh because one-and-a-half years of it was pure prep perfecting sound design, look and action parts.

What was your inspiration for writing this story?

While engaged in my philanthropic work, I found that many people were being cheated by cyber fraudsters when they were trying to reach out to me for medical or educational help. I thought this is a story which has to be told to people as they need to be aware. The smartphones that we all use are very dangerous weapons. You will find that in almost every family there is a victim of some monetary fraud or the other. But just giving people gyaan won’t help. It has to be nicely packaged and made to look entertaining. So that’s how I developed the idea for the story of Fateh.

What is the X-factor in Fateh that will pull audiences to theatres?

This film has got a lot more than just action. Look, I’ve done action all my life in close to a 100 movies, but I haven’t seen something like this ever. The challenge was to make something which Indian audiences haven’t seen. We also have the voice of Loire Cotler, who is a lead vocalist of Hans Zimmer (German film score composer who has won two Oscars) and whose voice powers the score of Dune. We have got a track from Hans Zimmer, which is called To The Moon, written by him. We have Lee Whittaker as an action guy who has done films like Fast & Furious and Jurassic Park. We have an Italian DoP. We have playback singers like Arijit Singh, Honey Singh, B Praak, Vishal Mishra, Sukhwinder Singh and Asees Kaur. I’ve made sure that it’s nicely packaged for people. When they spend their money, they get every penny’s worth.

Tell us how you prepared physically and mentally for this role.

I thought I have to set standards which are nowhere close to what I’ve done. I sat with my son and all his friends and asked them why they would want to watch the film. They told me that they would love to see an action sequence with no cuts. I realised that people are looking for a kind of action they’ve never seen before. In Fateh, the hero is fighting with almost 70 to 80 goons and so the idea of shooting a scene with no cuts was very challenging to me. I loved it.

So I started developing the whole storyline — all those punches, how the axe is going to hit someone, whether he is going to attack with a knife or a magazine from a pistol, or whatever. And then how the props like pans, plates and kettles as weapons would be made.

One thing I wanted to avoid was cables. I didn’t want people to come flying across cables, as if they are defying gravity. So I spoke to Lee Whittaker and told him what I had in mind — a no-cut action sequence with 70 fighters. When I insisted that we had to make it happen even after he told me how difficult it was, he suggested that we get professional fighters from South Africa and Mexico. They trained for two-and-half months in their respective countries and when they came to Mumbai for the shoot and the whole sequence was crafted, it has turned into one of the best action sequences you will ever see. Special rigs and batteries were developed for the camera to make it lighter as the cameraperson had to run with the camera for all those action sequences.

Other than that, it was very exciting, I would say. More than acting, the whole space of directing others to make your vision happen on screen was very challenging. I always knew that I need to make something special, and luckily, everyone on the team was on the same page as I was with my ideas. The whole experience was very satisfying.

How was it like directing veterans like Naseeruddin Shah and Vijay Raaz?

Since I write for films, people would often say that my dialogues are very good, and the best actors are needed to do justice to them. There are no better people than Naseer saab or Vijay Raaz, who have done phenomenal work all their lives. And when they became a part of Fateh, they made it more special.

Were you involved in the casting process as well? What was it like having Jacqueliene Fernandez as a co-actor?

Yes. In fact, I have spoken to and directed every single person in the cast of this film, every single technician, whether it was the DoP or their assistants or my assistants or production guys. I have personally narrated the story and given them their brief.

Jacqueleine is a very, very focused girl, very punctual and good to work with. I told her when I offered her the role that I didn’t want her to do any make-up or to do her hair. I told her that she just had to come with an out-of-bed look and be like a girl-next-door kind of a person. But when she shot for the film, she told me that of the nearly 30 films she has done, it was her best look ever. I think people are going to love Jacqueleine in this new avatar.

Fateh is going to be one of the first releases of the New Year. But it is also going to clash with Ram Charan’s Game Changer. Are you worried about this or taking it as a gamble?

I feel good films always work; there’s always space for two or three good films to do well at a time. We have seen films like Lagaan and Gadar releasing on the same day, with both doing so well. Even recently, box-office history says that if two big films release, both are likely to do well. So yes, we have to make good films. Release dates are important but as long as your product is good, people are going to watch it.