Naseeruddin Shah was roped in to essay the role of the villain as he had worked with Rai as a hero in "Tridev" and as a villain in "Mohra". Shah had earned critical acclaim for his villainous performance in Rai's "Mohra" and had earned a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role at the 40th Filmfare Awards. Noticing on Shah's previous success in a negative role, Rai cast him as the villain in his latest action thriller. The total cast was of 55 artists including model turned actress Dipannita Sharma, Tom Alter and Sharat Saxena among others.