Ajay Devgn And Saurabh Shukla's Face-off Is Highlight Of 'Raid'

Bigger the villain, mightier the battle - This is what holds true for any dramatic film that is set to be an explosive affair on the big screen. No wonder, filmmaker Raj Kumar Gupta was sure that for his lead protagonist Ajay Devgn in Raid, the antagonist had to be a veteran actor as well. The moment Saurabh Shukla's name came up, there were no further discussions and debates as the actor was signed up pronto.

"The film revolves around two characters - Ajay Devgn, who plays a government officer gearing up to raid the ones indulging in black money and Saurabh Shukla, who plays a local 'baahubali' drenched in power and wealth," informs our source, "There are quite a few scenes in the film where the two meet face to face. There was no way any lesser actor could have been placed in front of Ajay Devgn since that would have significantly reduced the impact of the scene. The written material is quite powerful, especially the dialogue-baazi between the two men. It needed someone of Saurabh's stature to pull it off."

What held further importance was the fact that even in this volatile situation, the idea was not to have the two actors fight it out at the top of the voice but instead keep it all subtle and calm, yet powerful.

"Saurabh sir is someone whom I greatly admire in terms of his body of work," says Gupta, "I was on the lookout of an opportunity where I could present him something really interesting. While Raid was being written, he came to my mind. It was a great opportunity to work with him. To have Ajay and Saurabh pit against each other was an opportunity that I couldn't let go of. I sent him the script and he really loved it. Since he is a writer-director himself, it was a lot of fun. We had a really enjoyable experience during the making of Raid."

We would like to see that translate on the big screen once the film arrives this Friday.