(Image source from: Will OUATIMD beat its prequel?})

Three years after Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi stormed the big screens with 'Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai', makers - Ekta Kapoor and Milan Luthria - are back with a bang and a bigger sequel — “Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara (OUATIMD).”

Starring Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Imran Khan and Sonali Bendre,  OUATIMD takes off from where the prequel ended. Akshay Kumar, who will reprise the role of Emraan Hashmi in the movie, will portray the role of Shoaib, an underworld goon and a womanizer, whose dominance is spread from India to the Middle East and even West.

Apart from the main starcast, much of the technical crew of the movie remains unchanged. Now the big question is that with a starcast as powerful as this, will this Independence Day release be a bigger success than its predecessor?

Director Milan Luthria comments on this star cast. "We needed an older Shoaib who was 15 years mature since this is a mentor protege franchise. We wanted to the protege from the earlier film to play a mentor in the sequel and that's why we chose Akshay. He was in talks with Ekta to do a film and he also wanted to work with me so why not? Akshay's into comedy and action of late so it was interesting to cast against his type, in an evil role. It will be a good change for his fans and as a director, I would have something different o play with. For Aslam's character, I wanted an earnest, righteous looking actor to play the role and that's how I cast Imran Khan. Sonakshi's a phenomenal actress and I've seen all her work. We wanted an Indian looking girl who is naive and comes from the North to make it into Bollywood. She had to look good against Akshay and Imran so I could not cast an older looking actress. I had to also ensure that Akshay did not look like a cradle snatcher and Imran did not look like a baby against Sonakshi. The actress had to fit well against both the male characters."

AW: Suchorita Dutta