Our family didn’t believe that my brother Rudr and I are making Hindi debut with ‘D Company’ says Ashwat Kanth

Actor Ashwat Kanth, who is playing the role of gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar in a forthcoming film titled ‘D Company’, has said that his family initially didn’t believe that he is making Hindi film debut with his real life brother Rudr Kanth in the same gangster-drama film. He added saying that his forthcoming film didn't glorify the main accused of 1993 serial bomb blasts of Mumbai and makers of the film have just tried to show the reality through the film.

Ashwat Kanth was interacting with New Helpline to promote ‘D Company’ along with his actor brother Rudr Kanth in Mumbai.  

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma is gearing up to release his upcoming film, D Company, said to be based on the life of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Budding actor Ashwat Kanth plays the gangster while Ashwat's brother Rudr Kanth will essay Dawood's late elder brother Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar.

During the interview, both brothers said that they went through a few round of auditions to be a part of the film, when asked Ashwat how he felt working with his brother in the same film and what was their family’s reaction to it, he said,  “It feels amazing to share the screen with my own blood. Both of us are really happy about it. I think this is the first time two real brothers are playing roles of onscreen brothers in their debut film. Firstly, they didn’t believe us. They thought that we were joking, so it took at least two days for us to convince them. After that, they gave their blessings to us and we had a small celebration at our home.”

Talking about the film and what kind of preparations he did to play the role of Dawood Ibrahim, Ashwat said, “There is very less material available about them on the internet, so we have tried to build our character according to whatever material is available to us. Before we started shooting the film, I started reading about Dawood Ibrahim and his origin because this film revolves around his initial journey and how he went on to form his own gang called ‘D Company’. I am shown playing his role when he was 26-27 years old. It all starts when he decides to take revenge of murder of his brother (Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar). I have taken a few references from the research which I did on him and I also added my own thing to the character, so that it doesn’t look caricature on screen. Ram Gopal Varma sir also guided us to build the character and that really helped us while we were shooting the film.”   

Earlier bollywood have made several films based on Dawood Ibrahim and his notorious gang such as ‘Black Friday’, ‘D’, ‘D-Day’, ‘Company’, ‘Shootout at Wadala’ and ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai’, when asked Ashwat whether makers of ‘D Company’ have tried to glorify Dawood Ibrahim through their film and whether they are ready to deal with controversies ahead of film’s release, he said, “I think we have already glorified him. Personally, I feel that Ravan is also glorified by many people. I feel circumstances shape the character of human beings. No one is born good or evil from their mother’s womb. We are not talking about religion or politics in this film. I am just playing his character in the film and we are only trying to show the reality in the film.”

Following his previous film ‘Company’, which released in 2002, Ram Gopal Varma has titled the upcoming movie ‘D Company’, which is based on the Mumbai based-D Company, headed by Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. Along with Dawood, the film will also feature the tales of other gangsters who survived under the roof of D-Company.

The film will be released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.