After playing safe initially with lover-boy roles in Socha Na Tha , Ahista Ahista and Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd; he took giant strides into off-beat cinema and broke stereotypes in Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, Manorama Six Feet Under, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye; the avant garde Dev D and the super-successful Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara; getting accolades for every avatar. His Tamilian act in Shanghai will take him a few notches higher.

After all, it isn't everyday that a Punjabi munda slips seamlessly into a white dhoti and delivers a 'cool as a cucumber' performance in a scathing hard-hitting film. What was your first reaction when Dibakar asked you, a hardcore Punjabi man, to play T A Krishnan, a Tamilian in Shanghai? My first reaction was one of denial.

I was like are you alright! What is it; does no other decent actor want to play the role? Then why did you relent? Dibakar is one filmmaker with whom I'm happy to work even without him giving me a script narration/reading. I trust him implicitly.

In fact, after we did Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, he went into Love, Sex Aur Dhoka where he had no role for me. And, I was like I hope he has a role for me in his next film at least.

So tell me about Mr Krishnan? Well, he is this egotistical, cold IAS officer who doesn't suffer fools. He has a chip on his shoulder and refuses to make small talk with anyone.

You're actually looking cool in the white veshti; cooler than most Tamilian men especially because you have not even the slightest hint of a paunch! Omigawd! Thank you for the compliment. Dibakar didn't order me to get a paunch.

I think he told Emraan (Hashmi) to get one for his role. To me he just said: 'Don't get too beefy or muscular.

' So for a whole six months I didn't do weights. Instead, I concentrated on my martial arts, yoga and running.

Anyway Krishnan is not a lazy guy. He plays badminton and is very atheletic.

It's just that he doesn't sport six packs. The Tamil accent must have got to you right? It was tough.

But I had a fantastic teacher in a film writer called Madhi. First I asked him to teach me the Tamil alphabets and realised that they have 'b' and 'h' in Tamil.

Dibakar and I were very sure that we will not stereotype the Tamilian. After all, IAS officers often serve outside their state and they are also well-versed with a second language like Hindi/Marathi etc.

So Krishnan could get away with speaking Hindi and only going into Tamil occasionally. How good is your Tamil now? It is very rusty.

I have no one to practice it with. I'm grateful to Madhi for being forceful and teaching me enough to get through the shooting.

In Indian cinema there are no professional voice trainers. So I missed that.

Also the regular guys who were sent to coach me were slightly enamoured by my status and weren't forceful enough. But Madhi was a tough cookie.

He made sure I got it all right! Who is the first Tamilian that comes to your mind? Tamil for me is my cousin Esha. I even told her that I was preparing to play a Tamilian and asked her if she could teach me the language.

However, we didn't go around to doing it because she was busy with her shoot when I was filming Shanghai. So you didn't observe any South Indians closely when you were shooting Shanghai? I have seen a few Tamil girls over the years; but I haven't ever observed a South Indian man.

Have you ever bumped into a Krishnan in real life? You mean a Krishnan kind of character. Actually I think Krishnan is like Justice Hegde who was carrying out that inquiry in Karnataka a while ago.

I was amazed at the way life imitates art. This inquiry that Justice Hegde conducted into a land-grab issue was similar to what we have dealt with in Shanghai.

And yet our film was shot long before that inquiry became public knowledge. In fact even the Anna Hazare movement actually started after we finished filming Shanghai.

So in that sense we haven't copied anyone. Abhay, can you recite the Vishnu Sahasranamam the way you did in the film? Film mein maine rata mara.

I parroted it for the film. In real life I don't chant.

Nor do I believe in idol worship. I know there is a higher being and I respect that force.

Produced by PVR Pictures, Shanghai releases June 8 (less)