The film ‘No Smoking’ having John Abraham as the protagonist may have been a dud at the box office. But the aspect that everyone including the critics acclaimed it was the guts of director Anurag Kashyap in bringing out a totally unconventional flick.

In the immediate period post ‘No Smoking’, Anurag had to battle the pangs of seeing the movie sinking without a trace. He also had to cope with the notions of him being a film maker who is unable to connect with the audience.

Post the overwhelming success of ‘Dev D’ and a decent acceptance for ‘Gulaal’, the scenario has changed. So the time is perfectly right for the “out of the box” director to finally trigger of his most ambitious project till date.

This new film is called ‘Bombay Velvet’.

This time Anurag is fully prepared and is totally confident of hitting the target with his lead man- John Abraham.

The film maker says “John plays a real-life hero of the masses from the 1960’s in ‘Bombay Velvet’. It is a thriller based on real incidents. It is an idea that we developed over the last four years by several minds including the history professor Gyan Prakash”.

The ace director also adds, “ I have never handled this kind of budget before. I want to be sure of the script. After ‘No Smoking’, John and I want to make sure our film is accessible to the audience. Today I realise where I had gone wrong in my earlier cinema. I am working on my weak points. I tend to get repetitive. So I have brought in two writers in ‘Bombay Velvet’ who ctiticised me the most for ‘No Smoking’.

John will be getting the company of the prolific performers Kay Kay Menon and Naseeruddin Shah in the new film.

‘Bombay Velvet’ is to be produced by TV 18.