Body of Lies is a 2008 American spy action thriller film directed and produced by Ridley Scott starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in the lead roles. Set in the Middle East, it follows the attempts of the USA and Jordan's intellience agencies, CIA and GID, to catch al-Saleem, a terrorist.
Do you know that the veteran actor Nana Patekar was offered a role in this Hollywood film, but he refused to be a part of this spy thriller. In a recent media interview, the actor was asked why he has said no to Hollywood films even after receiving a few offers. Nana responded, "It was because I did not have confidence about delivering the dialogues in English. I don’t have that fluency. I could have memorised that and done that anyway. But the roles that were offered, I did not like them. I can't play a terrorist. People who follow my work or love me see me playing that I wouldn’t like. It was in Leonardo DiCaprio’s film Body Of Lies."
The National Award-winning actor shared that he starred in an American independent film The Pool, released in 2007 and set in Goa. Nana added, "I had done a film called The Pool, they did the shooting. They knew Anurag Kashyap and they said they wanted a face like this for the actor so he showed me my face. Then that person came to meet and asked me if I would do it, I asked how many days of shoot to which he said 7-8 days. Then we shot the film in 10 days. They did not have the money to pay. I said it’s okay. This film worked. It was all hand held. That film won the Best Critic Award at the Sundance Film Festival."
Nana Patekar will be seen next in Vivek Agnihotri-directed The Vaccine War, which is based on how Indian scientists made vaccine against the Covid-19 virus. Also starring Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Girija Oak, and Raima Sen among others, the film releases in cinemas this Thursday, September 28.
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