Mumbai, Aug 24 - Amol Gupte has received praise for his performance as a Maharashtrian mafioso in Vishal Bharadwaj's recently released dark thriller 'Kaminey', but when the writer-director was first approached for the role he thought someone was playing a prank on him.

'I thought it was a crank call. A man named Honey introduced himself as Vishal Bharadwaj's casting director and offered me a very important role, in the same space and zone as Langda Tyagi in 'Omkara'. I banged the phone down not believing a word of what he said,' Gupte, who scripted the much-acclaimed 'Taare Zameen Par', told IANS.

But Honey showed up in Gupte's office.

'He had my resume as an actor right from the time in 1981 when I did my first diploma film as an actor. Honey was aware of all my 108 films as an actor in student films, also Ketan Mehta's 'Holi' and Dayal Nihalani's 'Gurudakshina'. They convinced me I was an actor. Finally, I had to meet Vishal. My wife Deepa and I knew Vishal and his wife Rekha from the time I was doing dubbing direction for Kamal Haasan's 'Chachi 420'. And I love his films,' he said.

'I could've made a career in acting in Mumbai. But I was wedded to the camera and the lens not as an actor but on much broader level. For 10 years, I shifted to painting and lived the life of a painter.