Mumbai: Nazim Rizvi, who was jailed for alleged links with the underworld, says he is innocent and is back to his business of making films. He says he has two films ready and is looking for distributors in an exclusive interview to businessofcinema.com’s S Ramachandran and Johnny Vaz

The last time producer Nazim Rizvi made a film was in 1998 when he signed on Salman Khan Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji for the Abbas Mustan-directed Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, The film made at a cost of Rs 127 million was sold for Rs 220 million before Rizvi along with moneybags Bharat Shah was arrested on December 13, 2000 for having underworld connections and having made the film with mob money.

The film was later re-negotiated by the court receiver Santosh Singh Jain for Rs 13.5 crore and Rizvi thus suffered another financial blow apart from having been jailed for 3 years and 13 days before being let out on bail.

Now the man has returned with not one but two films, both of them smaller in budgets and both with funnyman Rajpal Yadav in varied roles.

Hello… Hum Lallan Bol Rahein Hain, directed by ace writer Dilip Shukla of Ghayal and Andaaz Apna Apna fame has him in the lead role. The film made at a modest budget of Rs 15 million was started in February this year. “I have completed the film now. I am looking at a distributor who shall pick up the All-India rights of the film,” says Rizvi.

Nazim is also readying another film called Undertrial for release. “The film is about the story of a man who has been framed for raping his three daughters. There is another man called Nadir who plays a catalyst in this film for the hero Rajpal Yadav’s release. That character is loosely based on me and my experiences in jail of meeting various people there. There are other characters whom I have met in jail and gotten inspired by their life stories,” says Rizvi who has also written a book called Aankhein Meri, Baki Tumhare. “A TV channel wanted to buy off the rights and pay me 5 lakh per episode for a 102 episode serial but I refused to part with my jail diaries,” says Rizvi who also went through every book of law during his jail tenure.

Meanwhile Undertrial is an Rs 20 million film and has been shot at Thane jail where Rizvi himself was lodged. Rizvi is looking to release both these film this year after which he will begin a film with his Chori Chori Chupke Chupke star Salman Khan.