Stolen, starring Abhishek Banerjee, dropped on Amazon Prime Video on June 4 and has unanimously been hailed for its subject, execution, performance and twists. During an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, its producer Gaurav Dhingra jokingly corrected us and said, “One person, whose comments I read online, didn't like the film (laughs)!” On a serious note, the producer talked about the process of shooting and writing the film and a lot more.
How do you feel looking at the audience response to Stolen? I am overwhelmed and I am dancing! It’s very hard to make films and it’s harder to make films where you don’t want anybody else interfering in the process. As a result, it’s really vindicating.
How was it to shoot this film and what was the process like? In the crew, except for me and the editor (Shreyas Beltangdy), everyone else was a first-timer. The editor is a close friend and all my films have been edited by him. But the director, co-writer, DOP, production designer, costume designer – you name it and they were all newcomers. Their energy was unbelievable and they were all focused.
The stunt scenes were, of course, difficult to pull off. On certain days, we had 3 cameras and a lot of stunt people and extras in the middle of a desert. It was a challenge to put it all together but the end result has been satisfying.
Was Stolen shot in the summers or winters of Rajasthan? The shoot was supposed to be between December 14, 2022 and January 15, 2023. This is the ideal time to shoot as the hotels are available and there are no weddings happening. Nowadays, most of the small towns have become wedding destinations. Sadly, Abhishek Banerjee didn’t have dates during this period. Hence, the shoot got pushed to February 2023. As a result, the nights used to be very cold while the days used to be extremely hot.
Unlike other films which have 300 people, we had less than 100 people; 84 to be precise. We would have had even fewer people but then we had stuntmen as per the requirement of the script. It was very rigorous for everyone as we shot in as many as 83 locations.
It's always difficult to raise funds for a film like this. Please talk to us about it. Did budget constraints also result in fewer people in the unit? No. I like to shoot with fewer people as more people create more logistical issues. When we started the film, a couple of investors were interested as they had invested previously in my films and they got some returns. As we progressed, I realized that we were becoming more and more adventurous in what we were trying to do. I decided to earn that money. I do another business, that is, line-producing and producing any venture that comes to South East Asia from the West like 'The Amazing Race', 'Ice Road Truckers', 'World's Toughest Trucker', 'Rennervations', etc. I went on an overdrive during COVID to earn that money and then I financed the film myself.
We started working on the film in November 2019. The process got slower during the pandemic as we couldn’t meet each other. Later, we would prep and plan to shoot but then someone or the other would test positive for COVID-19. But once we started, the shoot went like a bullet train. We shot in February 2023 and by August 31 of the same year, we were at the Venice Film Festival.
We were very prepared and went to locations more than 100-200 times. We were even writing on location. We did massive rehearsals for the long takes and for that, the actors, sound recordist, etc, came two weeks earlier. Even the extras, camera people, light people, etc, needed to be rehearsed. Thankfully, the unit was one of the best crews I had worked with. We often get credit but it’s because of them that the film turned out to be great.
You are also one of the writers. The writing is very strong. I was changing my views about the character of Jhumpa every 10 minutes… I was doing a lot of advertising work, and was working on the Netflix show, Indian Matchmaking. I got Karan Tejpal to work with me on a campaign for Swiggy. I found him to be intelligent and offered him to direct some ads. He told me about the lynching story in Assam (Two boys were mistaken to be child lifters in Karbi Anglong, Assam and then lynched by a mob). This was a time when I and the other writer Swapnil (Swapnil Salkar) were developing a series on missing children in India. We merged the two.
Meanwhile, the mother angle came in and glued the whole thing together. Writing the mother’s character was tough as we, three privileged men, were writing it! We took a lot of feedback from women friends and women family members. I also contacted writers and producers from France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, USA, etc who I know. Every time we would write a draft, we would send it out and get critical feedback. The same we did with the edit. This helped us understand how the world was looking at the film.
I became a father during the making of the film. The costumes of Jhumpa are that of my baby’s caretaker. Hence, the attempt was made to keep everything authentic.
The audience kept wondering – whose child is it? And is she really wrong? That was very interesting and I am glad we could follow that right till the end.
Stolen is set in Rajasthan but the state is called Rann Rashtra in the film. The same was also seen in Shahana Goswami-starrer Santosh and in Bobby Deol’s show Aashram where names of states and towns were fictionalized. Was it done to avoid a controversy? Two reasons. Our primary reason is that what happens in the film can happen anywhere in India. It’s not necessarily going to happen only in Rajasthan. We didn’t intend to associate Rajasthan with the incident depicted in the film. But the main reason is that today when you make a film, so many people can stand up and complain that we have damaged the reputation of their state, culture, caste, religion, etc. Hence, we created a fictional region called Rann Rashtra. A town shown in the film is called Bansdola. It is a medical term which means losing one’s neck! The villainous doctor’s surname is Dhingra, which is also my last name (laughs). Tomorrow, if anybody objects to the surname of the villain, I can always say that it’s my surname too.
We researched a lot. To find a name that doesn’t exist in today’s times is also tough. Even Kumba station doesn’t exist. On the other hand, Gautam’s (Abhishek Banerjee) number plate is of Delhi. It’s my car’s number plate. The phone number mentioned is my friend’s phone number who works with me. Hence, we had it all covered.
Did CBFC pass the film without any cuts? We had to remove some profanities. The actors were emoting for real and they said certain abuses in the heat of the moment. The CBFC had objections to it. Also, we didn’t want it to be an adult film; we wanted the older kids to see it. Hence, we removed the abuses or modified some of them. That’s about it. But there was no visual cut.
It is unusual for me as I am used to having 90 and 100 cuts to my films! This time, I smartly made it in such a way that there would be no cuts (smiles).
Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Akshay Kumar’s unexpected shoutout leaves Stolen producer Gaurav Dhingra SHOCKED: “He’s a BIG guy. Unki nazar mein yeh film aayi; bahut acchi baat hai”; reveals Aamir Khan’s work ethic on Mangal Pandey sets inspired crucial scene in Abhishek Banerjee-starrer
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