'Baazaar' not inspired by 'The Wolf of Wall Street': Nikhil Advani

Filmmaker Nikhil Advani says though his upcoming home production "Baazaar" has the backdrop of stock market and trading, it is not similar to the Hollywood film "The Wolf of Wall Street". The film's first look was recently launched. Saif Ali Khan is playing the lead role of a Mumbai businessman in the movie that has drawn some comparison with the 2013 Martin Scorsese's film, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.

"'Baazaar' is about people who will always choose money over love and has a lot of research work behind it. Is it inspired by The Wolf of Wall Street? Absolutely not. Not at all," Nikhil told PTI. 

"But I hope when you see the film you say we have matched up to that scale and achieved something brilliant. Why do we have to go to the West when everything is in the books over here," he adds. Ever since the film was announced, there was speculation regarding the casting with Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan being talked about. 

Nikhil says his casual conversations with Akshay, with whom he has worked in films like "Patiala House" and "Chandni Chowk To China", were misconstrued as him approaching the actor for a project. "Every time I meet Akshay, it is viewed as if I am making a film with him. I have done three films with him, I can meet him for dinner. Hrithik and I want to do a film together and have been talking about several films," he says. 

"Was 'Baazaar' one of those films that we discussed? I discuss films with several people, at several times. It's not as if Akshay or Hrithik were supposed to do the film. It didn't even reach a stage where I told them the story. It was just a dinner conversation," he adds. The film, directed by

The film, directed by Gauravv Chawla, is about the world of stock markets and trading, where Saif plays a street smart Gujarati businessman. "Baazaar is about 'dhando', Saif is playing a Gujarati businessman. He looks very suave on the poster but he is a Gujarati businessman in the film. It is about this businessman who crosses lines left right and centre," Nikhil says. The "

The "D-Day" director says the film deals with the "world of Mumbai which controls everything, where debauchery happens" and says there was one condition which Saif had regarding the movie. "Saif's one condition was, I don't want people in this business to say 'This doesn't happen.' So we narrated the film to a set of businessmen. They heard it and the only comment they made was, you are talking about Rs 200 and 300 crore, but we don't talk in less than Rs 10,000 crore.

Increase the numbers please." Before Gauravv came on board as a director, Nikhil says he wanted to start "Baazaar" right after his 2013 "D-Day" but eventually decided to go ahead with his TV show "POW". "I felt I had outgrown the script. It needed to be made by a younger director. I am 46-year old and I don't have the connect with the brazenness, sexuality and the ruthlessness of

I am 46-year old and I don't have the connect with the brazenness, sexuality and the ruthlessness of Baazaar as a script which I had a few years ago. So, we went to Gauravv and he came up with this brilliant rework of the script." Apart from Saif, the film also features Rohan Mehra, son of late actor Vinod Mehra and Radhika Apte. Co-produced by Emmay Entertainment, "Baazaar" is aiming for a December 2017 release.

-PTI