Apoorva is busy planning!

‘Why bother with rumours?’ ... especially if they get a film publicity, says director Apoorva Lakhia.

There are hot dudes dressed in black and sporting chic sunglasses.
There are strong, good-looking women. There��s Istanbul��s old-world charm �� cobbled streets, cafes and medieval architecture. There��s heart-thumping music, mind-blowing action and special appearances by Abhishek Bachchan and Omar Abdullah, and mentions of Al Jazeera and Al-Qaeda.
Yes.Apoorva Lakhia is back just over a year after giving us one of 2007��s biggest hits, Shootout at Lokhandwala. This time with Mission Istaanbul, the director promises another action-packed thriller. ��There are 8,725 cuts in the 110-minute film,�� says Apoorva. To give you a better idea of what those numbers mean, he adds, ��Jodhaa Akbar probably had 3,000-odd cuts.��
But he isn��t going ga-ga over the film��s release. ��There are big banner films releasing every week. You have to strategise your marketing carefully. You need to kindle the audience��s curiosity, while taking care not to dilute their interest by showing too much for too long,�� he says. And any publicity is good, even if it��s about him and Vivek Oberoi being at loggerheads or Turkish belly dancer Tanyeli complaining that he is not an easy man to work with. ��Why bother clarifying rumours as long as my film��s in the news?�� Apoorva laughs.

Is he a difficult person to work with? ��I��m the easiest person to work with. It��s just that I get very excited and land up on the sets before everyone else does. That embarrasses them because they are always late,�� he says.
The ��hyper dude�� is also the most tattooed celeb. ��I have 14 tattoos altogether on both my arms. I got my first tattoo at 16. I wanted a Hanuman, but it ended up like a bus with a tail. Last year, I got a Krishna just above my forearm,�� he says.

Apoorva is one director who doesn��t shy away from the media, but is rather fascinated by the profession. ��I��m intrigued by journos who report from the front. I naturally include them in the script. They make for very powerful characters,�� he says. That��s why he picturises his leading women as, well, strong. ��That��s the kind of woman I like,�� says Apoorva.
And his men are stronger. ��I don��t believe in the good guy, bad guy stuff. In Shootout... they were all bad. The villain has to be stronger than the hero. That��s when a hero becomes a superhero. And romance too, for me, comes in the form of life��s situations. Not by singing and dancing,�� he says.
If anything, it��s the film��s backdrop and locations that lure him. ��I went backpacking to Istanbul once and ever since, I��ve been wanting to shoot there. I love travelling and am planning to visit China and Japan sometime,�� he says. But then, he won��t shoot in Switzerland or Australia. ��I prefer the grey areas. Too much beauty also rattles me,�� he says as a matter-of-fact.

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