Countdown to thrill

The cast and crew of upcoming Bollywood release 7 Hours To Go paid the capital a visit, shared their experiences of shooting and more.

Saurabh Varma along with the lead actors of 7 Hours To Go, Shiv Pandit and Sandeepa Dhar, paid a visit to Carnival Cinemas Odeon in the capital recently to promote the upcoming Bollywood flick.

Throwing light on the storyline, the director shared that the movie is youth-centric but targets a family audience. Shiv Pandit, who made his debut with Shaitan and later featured in Boss plays the role of Arjun Ranawat, a commoner who holds seven people hostage in a quest for justice. Saurabh pointed out that the movie offers an unusual perspective to cop stories and is based on an out-of-the-box idea that is distinct from the Dabangg league of movies. Speaking about the script and characterisation, he said, “My focus was on creating identifiable characters rather than giving them a larger than life persona. Shiv and Sandeepa have earnestly worked towards doing justice to the script and bringing the characters alive. Also, the action-packed sequences in the movie have been shot keeping in mind that they do not appear preposterous. We’ve deployed fighting techniques like close combat fighting to make the action look real.

The music of the film has been designed to push the narrative forward and we’ve included a couple of quirky songs to help the story flow.”

He also added that he wasn’t sure of Sandeepa, who plays Nandini Shukla, a female cop trying to solve the case, as the appropriate choice for the role. However, she convinced him with her enthusiasm about venturing into the genre of action.

“It’s a huge change for me and I feel lucky as I got to portray a very strong character as compared to the conventional, feminine roles I’ve played before,” Sandeepa said and added, “Having trained myself for six months in mixed martial arts and gymnastics did give me an edge while shooting, but the entire process drained me physically. The experience was enthralling but by the end of the day, I used to get taxed and bruised!”

When asked how different her character in the movie is from Rani Mukherjee’s cop persona in Mardani, the actress affirmed that she doesn’t believe in comparing, as the concepts of the two films are poles apart. She did add, however, that hers was a more grounded and pragmatic character, vulnerability being its essence.

Set to release on June 24, the film faces competition from a number of other releases, including Anurag Kashyap’s highly anticipated Raman Raghav, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Calling themselves a team of underdogs, the cast and makers of the film, however, believe that the audience will appreciate the hard work all of them have together put in and enjoy the overall experience of an unconventional film.