Bollywood actor Abhay Deol, who is known for his versatility as an actor, said that playing a Tamilian in his upcoming movie ‘Shanghai’ scared him.

“My character is something which I was really scared of doing. When Dibakar approached me with this I tried to convince him to make my character a Punjabi Arya Samaji. But he didn’t listen to me,” said Abhay Deol to PTI.

“Then it became a challenge for me. The sad thing was that we had to look for someone to teach me the accent. A writer called Madi taught me the accent. But I didn’t want my character to be stereotypical. There were loads of obstacles but it was more interesting to play someone who is not known to you,” he added.

The actor revealed that his character in the movie wasn’t one dimensional but has various layers and the audience won’t be able to figure if he is a good guy or the bad.

“My character has got various layers. After watching the film, people may have different opinion about my character. Some may feel that I am more towards the positive side and others may feel the opposite. My character is very tricky,” he said.

Other than Abhay Deol, the movie also stars Emraan Hashmi and Kalki Koechlin. Abhay has previously worked with Kalki in two movies ‘Dev D’ and ‘Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara’ but it’s the first time that he has worked with Emraan Hashmi. And the actor said that now is a huge Emraan Hashmi fan.

“I have watched couple of his films earlier and I have always felt he is one of the most underrated actors of the industry, like me. We both haven’t received that success in the industry which we deserve. He has acted brilliantly in the film and if somebody says he has surpassed me in the film, I will not feel bad or jealous,” he concluded.

The movie ‘Shanghai’ is all set to release this Friday June 8.