I spent an evening with Vishal Bhardwaj recently, and came back with a book -The Exile - that he strongly recommended. A fortnight later, having read through the book, my worldview slightly altered, I sat with him again to understand why he had so recommended it - and, as you have guessed by now, to get a sense of how, and why, he seems keen to bring it to life on the big screen. The Exile 's strapline on the cover describes it as "The Stunning Inside Story Of Osama Bin Laden And Al Qaeda In Flight", which is a pretty decent summary. Turns out, all the while we thought Osama was America's problem, he was our problem as well – the Parliament attack in Delhi had its roots in keeping OBL safe in a far-off corner of Pakistan. Turns out all of Al-Qaeda did not want 9/11 to happen, with the sole exception of OBL."These writers - Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy - wrote The Siege, on the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. It is a very dramatic, very well-written book. Their research is amazing. They have written books on events that have impacted Asia. And in doing so, they have had access of exceptional levels to the insurgency and the counter-insurgency structures across much of the world."So this begins with The Siege? "No, even prior to that, I had read their The Meadows. It was recommended to me by my cameraman, Tasadduq, who is Mufti sahab's son. While we were filming 'Omkara', I would keep saying to him, 'Yaar mujhe Kashmir ke upar film karni hai'. One day, after the movie, he met me at an airport and said, you were talking about Kashmir, do read The Meadows, no one has written such a book on Kashmir so far. I read it- and I was very impressed with their work. And then, when I read The Siege, I wanted to get its rights, but they had sold it to a US producer at that point of time. We have stayed in touch since then."Right. Vishal has a thing for the stories set in turmoil - from 'Maachis' to 'Haider'. No wonder this has him unable to disengage. So how did The Exile idea come about?"About a year back, they came to meet me and we had another chat about The Siege. During that chat, I asked them about what they were working on next. They told me about the next book they were working on - The Exile - and I was sold on it in one line, when they said it's "the prequel to Zero Dark Thirty." That got me hooked. They spoke about how Osama was evacuated from Tora Bora (in Afghanistan) when troops were just thirty feet away, and explained how the terror attack on India's Parliament was linked to Osama's escape. How the S Wing of the ISI kept guarding Osama for 9-10 years since it ensured the flow of millions of US dollars and enabled them to have some aces hidden up their sleeve, some strings in their hands. They explained to me that we have seen 'Zero Dark Thirty' from the American soldier's side - this book is from what was happening inside that complex.""I was completely hooked", says Vishal, "and I wanted to read it. I signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement and reading it only convinced me further that I wanted a film like this, a global film, to come out of India, on a global story like this. We have been so trained to only cater to our market, and we have been so conditioned, that to break out of that is a very difficult task. All that we talk about is the opening of a film."The terror attack on the Indian Parliament was part of a larger plan to help Osama escape, claims The ExileThat's stating the obvious - but since we're talking, an insight on why that's the case, Vishal? "Our audience internally is so huge that it is more than sufficient for us to recover what we put into making our movies. Add to it the Indian audience abroad and it's a massive number. Which is why we never feel the need to reach out. We don’t need to cater to a larger audience."Isn't that in a sense similar to how Bhojpuri cinema functions within India? "Exactly!" he exclaims. "And that is why we are the Bhojpuri cinema of the world! I wanted to go beyond that. So I took this to Junglee Pictures (that produced Talvar, which Vishal wrote). And we agreed that there must be some liberation from the stereotype. It's time for India to tell a global story, a story that everyone needs to know."So, to cut a long story short, after the discussions, the NDA, the readings, the chats with Junglee Pictures, what has happened is that a) Junglee has bought the rights to the book, b) Junglee and Vishal are co-producing a film based on it, titled Abbottabad, which, needless to add, c) is Vishal's next directorial venture.But then we've all seen 'Zero Dark Thirty', Geronimo, and such stuff. What will be different in this story?"The White House was an active participant in the production of 'Zero Dark Thirty'," says Vishal, in a very matter-of-fact tone. "The US is very sensitive to its global profile. That narrative is aimed at the justification of the torture model, to in a sense argue that Osama could not have been reached without this route -which is not really true. While the journey of the CIA from Tora Bora to Abbottabad - as narrated in 'Zero Dark Thirty' - was absolutely fascinating, this film will show you the other side of that fascinating story - all this while they were hunting him, how was the antagonist able to keep them at bay." As the Junglee Pictures team elaborates, there is so much the world is not fully familiar with. We have understood this story from the Western point - but we perhaps don’t understand it from the Asian point. And they are "not fictionalizing the story, only dramatizing it".US Navy SEALs outside Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad hideout in the film 'Zero Dark Thirty'So what should India, Asia, and the rest of the world expect from this project? What is the story you are going to tell?"The story is - What was Osama doing in all the time between Tora Bora and the day the choppers landed in Abbottabad? How did he spend those years? How did he configure a dish antenna to stay clued in to TV on 9/11? How they move from Karachi to Swat Valley to Abbottabad? How did the house at Abbottabad get built? How did his wives get to him? How did he record and send out his messages for so long without being intercepted? This ten-year journey is so gripping, so interesting, there is so much we don't really know or at least talk about," Vishal is by now bubbling over with excitement. "Did you know Parvez Musharraf , on several occasions when he was in Abbottabad, used to go jogging on a route that passed right in front of the house where Bin Laden was? Did you know that the attack on the Indian Parliament was timed in order to give Osama breathing space and enabled his escape from Tora Bora? How can you stay a fugitive with all the Western world out to get you, with all the technology, all the satellites - how do you dodge it all? With the ISI as partners in hunting him, at least officially, while one part of the ISI knew all along - this story is fascinating. There is so much to be told!"Is OBL, therefore, the primary character?"Yes and no. We are looking at this film from the perspective of the man who is chosen to guard and host the most important guest of Al-Qaeda in this house - Ibrahim. He kept guarding and protecting Osama for years. You need a protagonist to tell this story, and Osama Bin Laden cannot be this person. Ibrahim is a very relatable character - the rest are all so larger-than-life. The story starts from the point where this man is in awe of the guest, to the point where he feels compelled to give him an eviction notice.For ten years, Ibrahim's wife didn't know that the person living upstairs in their house was Osama Bin Laden!"Well, clearly, for the six years since the Abbottabad raid, there's much that we haven't known, too. That may change when this story makes it to the big screen. The prequel to 'Zero Dark Thirty' being made out of India - now, who would have thought of that!