'I wanted to explore villain inside me with Omerta'

Actor Rajkummar Rao, who is busy promoting his upcoming film Omerta, says that he wanted to explore his villainous side with this film.

Asked that what prompted him to play the dark character of terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh, he says, "As an actor, we get very fascinated with villains sometimes. If you see, Shah Rukh Khan sir has played grey or negative characters in Baazigar and Darr, Aamir Khan sir in Earth, Sanjay Dutt in Khalnayak and recently Ranveeer Singh in Padmaavat."

"There is something edgy about these villains that we get attracted to as an artist. I don't know if it's about the power these characters has or the limitless approach that these characters have that we want to explore and it was same with me. I think I wanted to explore this villain inside me with a film like Omerta," he adds.

Talking about the basic plot of the film, Rajkummar says, "Omerta means silence between the two people regarding certain thing and which they don't share with anyone else so in gangster term it is called Omerta. It's a story of Omar Saeed Sheikh and many young people like him who get brainwashed and become a part of terrorist activities," he added.

Omerta is a biographical crime drama film directed by Hansal Mehta and stars Rajkummar in the role of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, British terrorist of Pakistani descent.

The film explores the 1994 kidnappings of Westerners in India for which Omar was arrested and served time in prison and the plotting of murder of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, the Mumbai Film Festival, and the Florence Film Festival.

Omerta is scheduled to hit the screens on April 20.