'Awarapan 2': Shabana Azmi Joins Emraan Hashmi, Disha Patani in Sequel

Veteran actor Shabana Azmi will be part of Awarapan 2, starring Emraan Hashmi and Disha Patani. The highly-anticipated sequel to the cult 2007 film is currently in production at Vishesh Films. It is being directed by Nitin Kakkar, who is taking over the reins from Mohit Suri.

Bollywood Hungama reported that Azmi will appear in a pivotal part in Awarapan 2. Plot details about the sequel are currently under wraps.

"Shabana Azmi has come on board for Awarapan 2," a source was quoted as saying by Bollywood Hungama. "The role is apt for her and she was more than happy to bag the coveted part. It’s an interesting and powerful creative decision by producer Vishesh Bhatt that significantly intensifies the film’s emotional core and conflict. Interestingly, this marks Shabana Azmi’s first-ever collaboration with Vishesh Films.”

Azmi, a legend of screen and theatre, is enjoying a charmed second inning in the movies. She was memorably cast as the character Jamini Chatterjee in Karan Johar's Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. More recently, she played a formidable queenpin in the Netflix series Dabba Cartel, and had a key role in the romantic family drama Gustakh Ishq.

In an earlier interview with THR India, Emraan Hashmi had expressed his excitement for Awarapan 2, stating that the film will revive the golden era of Bollywood music.

“Music is the emotional bandwidth that you have in films,” the actor had said. “I don’t know if that stopped when films began catering to multiplex audiences after 2014. People felt that instead of filling 500 seats in a single-screen theatre, it was better to please 100 people in a multiplex and match their elite taste. Make it niche, make it nuanced. But somewhere in that process, we lost the core value of what our films used to bring to the table.”

He added, "We’re going to get it back. Awarapan is coming back, and we are going to have some really banger tracks on it.”