Mumbai, July 28

Arbaaz Khan is expanding his horizon. The actor debuts as producer with upcoming "Dabangg", starring elder brother Salman Khan and introducing Shatrughan Sinha's daughter Sonakshi, and says he might venture into direction one day.

Arbaaz says he was dilly-dallying with his next career choice of opening up a production company when he chanced upon the script of "Dabangg" and found it to be the right one to venture upon for his debut production.

"Honestly, before I turned producer, I had no inkling. I was thinking of getting into production when I met Abhinav, the director of the film. He narrated the basic idea to me; I kind of got excided and my idea of turning into a producer re-emerged in my mind."

"I had no clue how I will execute the project, but I kind of almost committed to him then. I got my brothers involved; they heard what I was planning and Salman liked what we brought to him. That came to action and my production company was formed," Arbaaz told IANS in an interview.

The 42-year-old actor is not ruling out the possibility of venturing into direction.

"May be the transition from an actor to a producer to a writer or a director... I think something is on the cards; I am not too sure whether I will write or direct my next production, but I do have some inclination towards that. May be some time in the future I wouldn't discount the fact that I might probably direct some of my future films," said Arbaaz.

Arbaaz was sure Salman Khan would be the protagonist in his debut production.

"I was quite sure Salman would be the protagonist. I obviously had to pitch it to him and get his reaction. May be if he, for some reason, had not liked the proposal I would have to do another film with him. Fortunately he readily agreed to do the film as soon as the script was narrated to him," said Arbaaz.

Arbaaz decided to introduce Sonakshi as he found her apt for the role.

"We are introducing Shatrughan Sinha's daughter Sonakshi. It's a very meaty and strong role. We had to go either with a star or a very, very good new girl who brings in freshness. We decided to go with the latter and we are extremely happy and confident that we have finalized Sonakshi who really fits the role and is a future star," he said.

Arbaaz is also playing a character role in the film. "I play Salman's step-brother. That's the basic relationship between the two characters."

Speaking about "Dabangg", he said: "It's predominantly a drama action musical. It's absolute fiction but a very believable kind of film."

Arbaaz said he will be producing films with mass appeal. "As a producer I would predominantly like to make films that have huge mass appeal. I don't necessarily want to go into a situation of making niche films. I like films that work on a larger scale and that come in every genre," he said.

Arbaaz declined to divulge the budget of his film but gave an inkling of how heavily he has spent.

"It's a very big budget film considering I have done 60 days of shooting for the action sequence. Action is the most expensive thing. People finish films in 60 days and I have only shot action for 60 days. My climax took 25 days of shoot," said Arbaaz.

Asked why he is not seen much in films or television of late, he said: "I have come to a stage where it is important for me to do quality work. I did my debut in 1996 with 'Darar'. Since then till 2010, I had a chequered career. Some good films, some not so good, and now I have come to a stage where if something really exciting comes my way like 'Fashion', I would love to do it."

"Dabangg" releases Sep 10.