{"id":317921,"date":"2023-11-16T15:26:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T15:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/popularindinews.com\/?p=317921"},"modified":"2023-11-16T15:26:18","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T15:26:18","slug":"people-who-commit-these-crimes-look-like-ordinary-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/popularindinews.com\/tv-movies\/people-who-commit-these-crimes-look-like-ordinary-people\/","title":{"rendered":"‘People who commit these crimes look like ordinary people’"},"content":{"rendered":"
‘These crimes have left a dark mark on my thoughts and conscience.’<\/strong><\/p>\n Nikhil Nagesh Bhat<\/strong> wants his stories to reach as many people as possible because he feels they are important.<\/p>\n One of the reasons is because they deal with crime and violence, and people need to be aware as it could happen to *anybody*.<\/p>\n The director has made Karan Johar not only sit up and notice him but also produce ‘the most violent film in India<\/strong>‘.<\/p>\n But before that, Bhat gives us Apurva<\/strong><\/em>, which has Tara Sutaria play a girl-next-door, who gets kidnapped and faces the worst ordeal of her life.<\/p>\n Bhat tells Patcy N\/Rediff.com<\/em><\/strong>, “People who commit these crimes look like ordinary people. They don’t have huge scars on their faces. They are normal people.”<\/p>\n What inspired you to write Apurva<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n I wrote this script around 2009-2010.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, at that time, and even today, there have been so many instances of crime against women.<\/p>\n It is one of the primary reasons that nudged me to write.<\/p>\n I have been brought up in Patna and unfortunately, these kinds of crimes are more in the north-east side of our country.<\/p>\n When I was growing up, there have been a lot of cases like this. Thankfully, they have reduced now but still not over.<\/p>\n These crimes have left a dark mark on my thoughts and conscience.<\/p>\n The second reason, when you watch the film, you will see that Apurva has hopes and dreams of getting married and living a good life. Everything is going great when suddenly one instance changes her entire life.<\/p>\n This can happen to anybody.<\/p>\n She’s a girl next door. She’s been protected all her life, a very normal girl, but when she’s put in such extreme circumstances, she stands up. That is what the film is about.<\/p>\n She’s a woman with a voice and she doesn’t stand just for herself but for other people too.<\/p>\n Did you have any actor in mind when you wrote this film? Why did it take you so much time to make it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Typically, when I write my scripts, I don’t put a face to the character.<\/p>\n The logical reason is we don’t know these actors in real life.<\/p>\n We know actors from their films and their characters in them.<\/p>\n So there was a casting process.<\/p>\n But the reason why it took so much of time was at that time when I’d written the script… unfortunately, I don’t like to say this but this is a woman-centric film. There were hardly films made with a female protagonist at that time.<\/p>\n The producers I used to meet would say that you need to introduce a hero, who will be the saviour and come to her aid.<\/p>\n But this is her story.<\/p>\n I did not want to make any changes.<\/p>\n Thankfully, when I met Disney+Hotstar, they bought the vision I was bringing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why did you sign Tara Sutaria? What made you think she could pull off a role like this?<\/strong><\/p>\n When I met Tara and narrated the story to her, I could see that her body was responding to the story — she was so engrossed and taken in.<\/p>\n Her expressions were constantly changing, as if it was happening to her personally.<\/p>\n Even after that, when we spoke about it, she got the story as if it was her own.<\/p>\n That was one of the biggest reasons why we cast Tara.<\/p>\n Secondly, there are two portions in the story. She’s a normal girl-next-door, who is pretty and looks like she will be weak.<\/p>\n But she’s put into that situation and she comes out with such a strong force. You don’t expect that.<\/p>\n Even the goons in the film — played by Abhishek Banerjee, Rajpal Yadav, Sumit Gulati and Aaditya Gupta — think she is very weak and won’t put up any resistance.<\/p>\n When I met Tara, it changed the way I was looking at Apurva.<\/p>\n She just fit in the process.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This thriller has a lot of action. How did Tara cope?<\/strong><\/p>\n We were shooting in a place called Kuldhara 40 kilometres away from Jaisalmer.<\/p>\n The terrain is very hostile. It was full of gravel, shrubs, thorns, everything… There were snakes and scorpions too.<\/p>\n The days were very hot and the nights were very cold; we were shooting last November.<\/p>\n Tara had to run bare feet and no matter how much you clear the path, certain things you just can’t (avoid<\/em>). She would get injured everyday.<\/p>\n There was also a lot of dragging, lifting and falling.<\/p>\n Her shoulder got dislocated two-three times.<\/p>\n Not just her, Rajpal (Yadav<\/em>) sir got hit in the back.<\/p>\n Abhishek (Banerjee<\/em>) had a sore neck.<\/p>\n I’m blessed that these actors put themselves out there and did everything on their own.<\/p>\n There was no way we could use a body double; they did everything by themselves.<\/p>\n Tara and I did a lot of prep in terms of discussing the character and its world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After Pataal Lok<\/em>, Abhishek makes a brilliant villain. Rajpal Yadav is mostly seen in comedy roles. How did you choose your villains?<\/strong><\/p>\n People who look innocent make the greatest villains.<\/p>\n Pransaab<\/em> was so handsome, but I don’t think we had a more devilish villain in cinema history.<\/p>\n Rajpal sir has been doing comedy for a long time and the moment you cast him in such a role, people will expect him to be comic again. But they will get the shock of their life!<\/p>\n People who commit these crimes look like ordinary people.<\/p>\n They don’t have huge scars on their faces. They are normal people.<\/p>\n I told Rajpal sir, ‘You don’t need to smile in the film.’<\/p>\n He thought I was joking.<\/p>\n Abhishek’s last few films are Stree<\/em> and Bhediya<\/em>nwhere he is doing comic roles. He looks so innocent.<\/p>\n But in this film, he is so menacing, it looks amazing.<\/p>\n The other two (kidnappers<\/em>) are Sumit (Gulati<\/em>) and Aaditya (Gupta<\/em>).<\/p>\n Sumit looks cute and pudgy and you want to hug him, but in this film, you would not want to be around him.<\/p>\n Aaditya looks innocent too. He looks like a character who was picked up by these people to run errands, but he’s actually one of them.<\/p>\n Why did you release your film on the OTT platform?<\/strong><\/p>\n My first film Brij Mohan Amar Rahe<\/em> was on Netflix and I have seen the kind of reach they have. A platform like Disney+Hotstar has about 14 million.<\/p>\n It has a reach beyond India. It’s in North America, Southeast Asia… it travels to so many countries.<\/p>\n A story like this should travel because it needs to be told.<\/p>\n It needs to reach people.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n