Racial discrimination exp helped making `Crook`: Mohit Suri

Mumbai: Director Mohit Suri, who had a first hand experience of racial discrimination while shooting in Australia for his upcoming film `Crook`, said the incident helped him in making the movie.

"We had a day off so went for a party in a pub. We were not allowed inside as an Indian bouncer told us that there was no space, but they left Australians in. This personal experience helped me in improvising the script a lot," Mohit told PTI. `Crook` deals with racial attacks on Indians in Australia. "When it came to permit and shooting I faced issues in Australia. We were not allowed to shoot for a couple of days and we had to set up sets in Mumbai because of which the production cost shot up. 10-20 per cent of the shooting was done in Mumbai," the 29-year-old said. He said it was after media reports on racial attacks in Australia, that he decided to make a movie on the subject. "I read articles in newspaper about attacks on Indians in Australia. I found a story in that. When I was Chandigarh I came to know that every second household has a child in Melbourne. So I wanted to go to Australia to research on the subject," Mohit said. To unearth the truth behind the attacks, Mohit went to a store where the first major racial attack took place. He was shocked to learn that an Indian was brutally beaten up because of his colour and religion. "Some Australians did not like the song `Singh is King` being played at the store. So they came there and asked to stop the song. They also asked who is Singh over here, and thrashed an Indian youth." I was appalled by this. The worst part was when I walked out of the store and saw an advertisement saying `Accommodation available for Indian students - for Gujarati boys only`. This thing ignited the idea of `Crook`," he said. Emraan Hashmi and newbie Neha Sharma play pivotal roles in the film scheduled for October 8 release. "I realized that racism is part of every person`s heart...it is there every where whether it is in our own country or any where else. I did not want to make film that would criticise any race or country. I wanted to deal with it on a larger scale," Mohit said. Meanwhile, the director intends to start working on the film `Murder 2` by year end. PTI