Bandar teaser: Bobby Deol goes from rockstar to sexual assault accused in Anurag Kashyap’s next

“Come on, baby! Dil kisko degi?” — Sameer grooves to a similar quirky and groovy track on the stage, wooing the girls at the party in the process. “Why are you on a dating app? You can get any girl you want,” a woman tells Sameer, who admits he sometimes thinks of himself as a “a bahut bura aur ghatiya kisam ka aadmi (a terrible and creepy person).” He doesn’t even check the age of the women he swipes right on the dating app — the only criteria are the pictures.

A twist comes halfway through when Sameer is arrested for alleged sexual assault. He maintains that the girl (Sapna Pabbi) is a liar who’s only trying to frame him. The teaser also introduces Sanya Malhotra as Sameer’s sister, who admits he’s an “idiot.” A large chunk of the film is set inside a jail, with the last shot revealing Sameer smoking and sporting a crooked smile inside his cell.

About Bandar

Helmed by Anurag Kashyap and co-directed by Sakshi Mehta Lau, it’s written by Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee. Boasting of an ensemble pan-India cast, including Indrajith Sukumaran, Saba Azad, Jitendra Joshi, Raj B. Shetty, Sapna Pabbi, Ankush Gedam, Riddhi Sen, and Nagesh Bhonsle, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

While the Bandar teaser claims the film is “based on true events”, Kashyap has denied that it has anything to do with the MeToo movement after online chatter alleged it was an “anti-MeToo” and “pro-men” movie. “It has nothing to do with MeToo. See when a film is about a false rape accusation case, those conversations happen. But MeToo is about power, somebody using a position of power, to do something. This film has nothing to do with that kind of a powerplay, or that kind of sexual angle, so it has nothing to do with MeToo,” the filmmaker told SCREEN last year.

Also Read — Bhooth Bangla: Vendors complain of pending dues of Rs 48 lakh as Ekta Kapoor celebrates ‘biggest hit’

Bobby Deol was initially hesitant to take on the role of Sameer Mehra in Bandar because it’s too dark for someone who’s been an A-list star in the past. But it was his late father and legendary father Dharmendra, who convinced him to “go take a chance”. Bandra is slated to release in Indian cinemas on June 5.