MUMBAI: Mentor Sudhir Mishra has cast Arunodoy Singh in a real-life thriller, which will also star Chitrangada Singh.

The success of No One Killed Jessica has triggered off a never-before headline-driven movement in Hindi movies. Apparently a number of productions in the coming year from Prakash Jha, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, UTV and Vipul Shah would have real people and situations.

The first post-Jessica film based on newspaper headlines would be Sudhir Mishra’s Driver. The film is loosely inspired by the infamous Sanjeev Nanda case. On 10 January, 1999 Nanda, the scion of well-to-do family in Delhi and grandson of Admiral S.M Nanda had mowed down five people with his BMW.

Mishra’s Driver would be inspired by the incident that had grabbed headlines 12 years ago. Mishra wanted to make the film last year with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead, however now after Yeh Saali Zindagi, he has the confidence to cast his blue-eyed boy Arunodoy Singh in the title role.

Mishra tells Businessofcinema.com, “I believe Arunodoy is star-material but no producer or distributor was willing to listen to me. Now after Yeh Saali Zindagi, I can cast him in anything. So Arunodoy is 100 percent on. He has the political background to understand the dynamics of the whole collusion of big money and murky politics in the Capital plus he is a very charismatic boy who has so far not been used properly in the films he has done.”

Interestingly, Driver will cast Chitrangada as the dress designer in Delhi. If one recalls, in the Sanjeev Nanda episode there was a dress-designer-girlfriend on the scene.

Like Yeh Saali Zindagi, Driver will be situated and shot entirely in Delhi. Mishra wonders why we don’t have a thriving film industry in the Capital. “One reason is because being an actress is still not considered a decent profession in the North. Actresses are still looked at as ‘loose’ women in some sectionds of Delhi and other North Indian cities. I want to break that image.”