MUMBAI: Sanjay Dutt plays ‘Sattarbhai’, a bully who collects loan installments from bank debtors, in his forthcoming film EMI. The character has been inspired by a real-life collecting agent and the Bollywood actor spent a lot of time with him to get his act right.

“Sanju sir’s character is modelled on a real-life agent. In fact, the whole film’s plot about all these debt collectors who have the thankless job of getting bank loans back from debtors was inspired by the real-life Sattarbhai,” said Ekta Kapoor, who is co-producing the film with Suniel Shetty.

The real-life character’s identity is, however, being kept a secret right now.

Said Suniel Shetty, “We don’t want the real Sattarbhai to come into the picture until Sanju baba’s fictional avatar is properly unveiled to the public.” Sanjay Dutt met, interacted with and studied the real-life Sattarbhai very closely to get into the skin of the character. And he was glad that he wasn’t playing an underworld gangster yet again.

“This is my most seriously funny and socially relevant character since Munnabhai. And I’m happy to be doing something that doesn’t require me to go into the underworld,” he quipped.