Manoj Tiwari plays himself in Farhan Akhtar's Lucknow Central

Riding high on the success of the initial results and trends in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, which suggest a landslide victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari has not forgotten his first love - the singer-turned-politician is set to play himself in Farhan Akhtar’s Lucknow Central.

Tiwari shot for his special appearance on Monday at a Chandivali Studio.

Farhan’s character is a huge fan of Manoj Tiwari and aspires to be like him. “I wouldn’t have had so much fun had I been cast as the lead as I did playing this part,“ Manoj said in a press statement.

Manoj’s scene in the film was a concert sequence while Farhan’s character tries to reach Manoj, who’s performing on stage, and fails to do so.

“Farhan had already canned his shots so he was not present on the sets. However, Ravi Kishan dropped by to meet Manoj. Manoj was all praise for debutant director Ranjit Tiwari, who he described as “extremely sharp“ and confided that he’d been shown some rushes and was really impressed,” a source told Hindustan Times.

Expressing his happiness over meeting Ravi Kishan, Manoj said, “He waited for four hours till I wrapped up my shoot around 1 am and then took me to his house for dinner. Such greatness!“ exclaimed Manoj.

Lucknow Central is set against the backdrop of a jail, where Farhan plays the role of a prisoner, aspiring to be a Bhojpuri singer.

Produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Emmay Entertainment and Motion Pictures, the film is directed by Ranjit Tiwari, and is slated to release on September 15.