Bollywood has had many actors essaying the role of police officers. Asked what makes him a different cop in "Malang", Anil told here: "My early memories of cop is 'Ardh Satya'. Om Puri gave one of his finest performances in it. I was really shaken up when I saw the film. I really loved the film. Om was terrific as a police officer.
"Then of course, there was 'Zanjeer' which was a mainstream commercial film. After that I think it was 'Ram Lakhan' - a mainstream commercial film where I played a cop who just wanted to be rich, even if he had to go against the system. I did other films as well where I played a cop", he said.
The list of actors playing police officers in films goes on.
"There is Ajay (Devgn) who played a cop in 'Singham', Salman (Khan) in 'Dabangg'. When this role (in 'Malang') was offered to me, first I said 'let me not do this role because I have already played a cop'. There is a tendency of people saying that 'You are playing a cop again'," he said.
But then he realised that "cop is something that you can play again and again".
Sharing an example from Hollywood, he said: "Clint Eastwood has played so many of these roles (cop roles) like in 'Dirty Harry'."
Talking abut his role, Anil said: "It is a pretty dark role. I said 'I have not played such a dark character'. I wanted to be little more fun and watchable also. It's a commercial film. I have tried to make it as interesting as I could."
His look in the upcoming film has already got a thumbs up from many people. Did he give inputs to his cop look, he said: "Yes, it is a collaborative look. Mohit (Suri) wanted an all-black look but I said 'No, you know all-black... I am playing a cop so it might not look real. It might look slightly stylised'.
"Then I added the cop shirt. The red glasses was his (Mohit's) idea. The tattoo was also his idea," he added.
He let his natural grey hair shine in the film.
"There is a lot of anger which he (his character) has towards the department, the system and a lot of anger towards Goa. He feels that Goa is not the way it used to be. Keeping all this in mind, I thought my hair and all should be dishevelled and he is 50 plus, so he should look like he is 50 plus. I have grey hair. I said 'Let me leave my real grey hair', which you see in the film. It's not artificial," Anil said.
( With inputs from IANS )