MUMBAI: Bollywood’s fast rising star Ranbir Kapoor has been toying with the idea of producing a film for a while. The actor who bagged away most of the awards in 2012 for his critically acclaimed performance in Anurag Basu’s ‘Barfi!’, seems to have taken cue from superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, John Abraham and more to jump on the ‘actor-cum-producer’ bandwagon.

Taking a small but significant step towards fulfilling his dream, we hear that Ranbir Kapoor is not only going to act in Anurag Kashyap’s ambitious project ‘Bombay Velvet’, but also co-produce it with Kashyap’s Phantom Productions.

An insider tells us, “Anurag had several meetings with the presenters of the film, Viacom 18. The film has a budget of approximately 95 crores. Ranbir was not a part of the proposal at that time, since the casting was far from final.”

Vikas Bahl, from Phantom Productions confirms, “As a team we realized his (Ranbir’s) inputs to the script is much more than an actor’s. He looks at the bigger picture, the scope of the film beyond his role. And that is when it occurred to us that it would be great to have him play a part in the production as well.”

‘Bombay Velvet’ also featuring Anushka Sharma is the story of how Mumbai city became a metropolis against the backdrop of love, greed, violence and … Jazz music! The film is based on Gyan Prakash’s ‘Mumbai Fables’.