This is why team Baang wanted Shanvi Srivastava to play a gangster

When Shanvi Srivastava was approached for a special role in the Kannada film Baang, she was, no doubt, flattered that the team thought she fit the character. The ask was to play a leather-jacket clad, gun-totting gangster called Leona, which would also include a fair bit of action. Although she was not sure if she could carry off the role confidently, Shanvi decided to give it a try nevertheless, and going by the visuals that the team has released of her from the film, she has done justice to it and how!

But how is that the team, especially debutant director Sree Ganesh Parashuram, thought that she fits the bill? Well, turns out, Sree Ganesh is quite the fan boy. “I have been a big fan of Shanvi for many years; she’s a great looker and performer too and can carry off any kind of costume with elan. Her styling in Tarak is testimony to that. I was confident that she was the right choice for the character, but I was not sure if she would entertain a role offer from a newbie team. To our luck, she took it up,” says the filmmaker.

Read also: Baang director Sree Ganesh Parashuram: 20 years of watching movies was my film school

Baang, which is releasing in theatres on August 18, follows a group of four friends, played by Ritvik Muralidhar, Sunil Gujjar, Natya Ranga and Saathvika, and the trials and tribulations they face when they come into possession of a particular bag. The contents of the bag are of value to two gangsters – Leona and Daddy (Raghu Dixit).

Speaking about being a part of Baang, Shanvi had told OTTplay earlier that she is no longer in the ‘zone’ where she only wants to do typical heroine roles and that she was instead looking for work that was creatively satisfying. Playing Leona in Baang, she had said, was one of those. “I needed to satisfy the actor in me and that’s how I took up Baang,” she told us.