Rajat Kapoor is starring in the new Disney+ Hotstar thriller Lootere. The show, directed by Jai Mehta under showrunner Hansal Mehta, sees Kapoor play the captain of a trade ship that is hijacked by Somali pirates. In an exclusive chat with DNA, the actor talks about what makes Lootere different, the experiences of shooting on the seas, and more.
Lootere introduces the world of piracy in Somalia to Indian audiences. “We have never seen anything like this in India,” Kapoor says, adding, “We have never seen African actors playing lead roles in an Indian project. That brings such good, fresh energy on to the screen. And these are brilliant actors.”
The actor is all praises for how the makers of the show not just cast authentic African actors as the pirates but made sure that their characters are more than just the stereotypical villains. “They speak English and in their accent, which suits the characters. But it’s not about casting these actors, each character has a graph. It’s not as if they are just pirates. The commander Barkat has his backstory, Kumpe has his own graph, and the brothers have their own arc. All that is phenomenal. The writers and Jai have done a great job in making these characters count, and you remember each one of them. Each one has his own idiosyncrasies and character that you identify with,” he says.
The actor filmed the series aboard a ship off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, which served as Somalia in the show. Talking about the filming experience, he says, “Cape Town is a beautiful city. But 98% of my work was on the ship. I never got to explore the city. So, we were actually hostages on that ship. Jai (Mehta, the director) had hijacked us. But it was great fun shooting. The crew was great, by which I mean both the crew making the series and the crew of the ship where we shot. We really bonded.”
Lootere also stars Vivek Gomber, Amruta Khanvilkar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Martial Batchamen Tchana, and Aamir Ali. Three of its eight episodes are currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar with a new episode dropping every Friday.
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