Now this piece of development is bound to catch everyone by surprise. The newest entrant in Shootout At Wadala is Jackie Shroff. This, when the film is barely three weeks from release. Or did the makers deliberately keep mum? (Recently, it was revealed that Priyanka Chopra, Sophie Choudry and Sunny Leone had all been roped in too.) Interestingly, Jackie has Anil Kapoor for company, which also marks the comeback of the most prolific male 'jodi' of the 90s. The last film they did together was Priyadarshan's Kabhi Naa Kabhi [1998] which had released a decade and a half back. "This was an impromptu decision taken by Sanjay Gupta and Balaji," informs a source.

"A crucial scene from the film is required to be shot and the hunt was on for an actor who had a towering personality and commanding presence. He had to play the part inspired by a top Police Commissioner from the early 80s. Though there is no fact to substantiate the claim, a fictional account states that it was the Commissioner who was the first in the history of encounter killings to issue a go-ahead." This means that while the character of Anil Kapoor, a cop who pulled the trigger on Manya Surve (John Abraham), the man who was actually the architect in this encounter was the character being played by Jackie Shroff. Says a source, "Jackie is on a very steady comeback. If given a stage that is worthy enough, he knows what and how he has to deliver.

The coming together of Jackie and Anil on the same frame is electrifying." Confirms director Sanjay Gupta, "Ekta was sure that she wanted a major star for the part. After all, this scene is extremely crucial to the film. Just imagine, if till today there have been 900 encounters and 1400 dead people, there had to be that one guy who passed the order. We happened to see the promo of another forthcoming film and were intrigued to see how Jackie stood tall. We knew we had found our reel guy there and then." Though expecting chemistry a la Ram Lakhan and Parinda would be a little too much, considering the limited time and space that Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff have together, this is yet another reason to look forward to Shootout At Wadala.