Not only has actor Mukul Dev dubbed for Naseeruddin Shah in Jagmohan Mundhra's Shoot On Sight, he was also asked to mimic the baritoned bard of Bollywood's blah-blah to the minutest detail.

Revealing details of just how closely Mundhra monitored Mukul's mouthed manoeuvres the director reveals, "Once Naseer made it clear that he wouldn't dub for the Hindi version of my film, I began to search for a voice that would replicate Naseer's speaking voice as well as speech patterns and intonations also. I was very clear that I wanted an actor to dub Naseer. Only then would the dubbing artiste understand what how and why Naseer was trying to say what he was. That in place, I personally sat down with Mukul for the dubbing to make sure he got the nuances of Naseer's voice right. In short, I made Mukul mimic Naseer down to every detail."

This was the only dubbing that Mundra supervised personally. "I was with Mukul to dub all his lines. All the rest of the voices, including the other main characters like Mikaal Zulfiker who plays Naseer's nephew (dubbed by actor Aly Khan), Greta Scachi who plays Naseer's wife (dubbed by Shobhini Singh), Laila Rouss (dubbed by Maninee Dey) and Brian Cox (dubbed by Tom Alter) were supervised by this wonderful lady named Leela Ghosh who was recommended to me by Aparna Sen. Leela had supervised the dubbing of Aparna's Mr & Mrs Iyer in Hindi. But for Naseer's voice I could take no chances."

The results would be out when Shoot On Sight releases in October. Asserts Mundhra, "Mukul Dev sounds exactly like Naseer. But he is not Naseer. So what? I saw a Bengali film dubbed in Hindi called Anuranan where the original hero Rahul Bose dubbed his own lines. How did that help the film? Finally, people go to see a film, not to hear who's speaking, or not."

About the accusation that the series of biopics that Mundhra made has not worked and he has therefore gone back to making b-grade softporn thrillers Mundra laughs. "B-grade thriller, softporn, biopic maker…these are labels given to me by the media. I'm making the films I want to make. After I complete Begunaah with Anuj Saxena and Udita Goswami, I go into a suspense thriller Room Mates where Raima Sen and Gul Panag play the title roles."

When told that Mukul Dev dubbed his lines in Shoot On Sight Naseer responds, "I hope he enjoyed it. I would certainly not have!"