Mumbai, Jun 14 (PTI): Actor Sonu Sood, who will be essaying the role of Dawood Ibrahim in upcoming film 'Shootout at Wadala', has expressed desire to enter the den of the underworld don, just to get into the character.

Directed by Sanjay Gupta, 'Shootout at Wadala' is a prequel to his 2007 film 'Shootout at Lokhandwala'. The second instalment looks at dramatising the first registered encounter by Mumbai police, where gangster Manya Surve was shot dead in 1982 at Wadala.

Bollywood has always remained sort of 'obsessed' with Dawood and is evident from the characters based on him essayed by actors like Ajay Devgan in 'Company', Randeep Hooda in 'D', Vijay Maurya in 'Black Friday' and others.

Sonu says he would not leave any stone unturned to give justice to the don's character.
"I have read books...read articles, I am doing my homework. The director is also providing inputs. I want to go and visit the place where he (Dawood) was brought up and meet people over there. I might go there. Right now I am busy with 'Maximum' once we are done with this film, I would love to go and see couple of people who were associated with him over there," Sood told PTI in an interview.

Dawood, son of a policeman from Dongri, has been declared as a global terrorist as he is believed to have masterminded the 1993 serial bomb blasts and said to have played an important role in the 26/11 terror strikes.

The upcoming film based on 'Dongri to Dubai', a book by Hussain Zaidi, deals with the rise of Dawood in the underworld and his rivalry with Many Surve. It talks about the death of Dawood's brother Shabbir and the encounter of Manya Surve reportedly orchestrated by Dawood.Sood who has begun shooting for his part can not stop gushing about the much-hyped role. He says that a lot of research has gone into shaping his role and look in the film.

"I have a moustache and the 70s inspired costumes. As the film is based in 70s, you will have that kind of retro but very stylish look ...The look has come out good," the 38-year-old said.
Sood says he does not mind being called as Dawood.
"If you are called as the character your job is done. It is like you have convinced people that you are this guy. If I am able to do that it would be great. It would be like finally I have been able to convince people that this is how Dawood was at that time," he said.

The ensemble cast of 'Shootout at Wadala' includes John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Kangna Ranaut, Tusshar Kapoor, Mahesh Manjrekar and Ronit Roy.

John plays the character of gangster Manya Surve, while Anil Kapoor as ACP Isaque Bagwan who killed the gangster in real life encounter.