No interval for Rajkumar Rao's Trapped

Interval or intermission is a concept that exists only in Indian cinema. Twists in Indian movies are written keeping intervals in the mind, unlike anywhere in the world. Apart from that, the intermission also serves as a great profit earning business where audiences are expected to buy overpriced snacks and drinks.
It came as a surprise when Aamir Khan released his film Dhobi Ghaat without an interval. Vikramaditya Motwane also took a call of releasing his survival drama Trapped (out in the UAE today), without an interval. Earlier this week, we got to see the film and there was no intermission.  The director wanted to keep the thrill element of the story intact; hence they requested their exhibition partners to release the film without any breaks.
Trapped is the story of a guy stuck in an apartment with no food, no water and no electricity, and his survival is based on his primal instincts. The no-interval viewing allows the viewer to feel the character’s emotion and gives them a never-before thrilling experience, according to the makers. This film was screened at Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival last year and received raving reviews.
Rajkummar Rao, who is one of the most talented actors in the scene today, is known to bring life to his character. To make his character Shaurya, who is trapped without food and water, look real, Rao lived on coffee and apparently carrot for 15 days. “I stopped eating food and having water, I was surviving on very minimal food and drinking coffee. I went through what my character was going through to make it look believable. I was hardly eating anything. My character was mostly surviving on little water. That was my responsibility as an actor,” he said.
The plot of the film revolves around Rajkummar’s character Shaurya, who gets locked in his apartment.
The Queen actor also cut himself to get into the skin of his character, which made him angrier and helped him portray the role better. “I did cut myself for a scene because I wanted to make it very believable. I did not want to take a short cut. The whole experience of doing this film was very challenging for it. I have never done anything like that in my career. It was physically and mentally very exhausting. It is very rare for an actor to get a survival drama like this. I got a chance to push myself beyond limits, where I have to starve and give blood. I love to challenge myself for different characters. Another    important reason was Vikramaditya Motwane himself. He is such a fine director.”
 
Chat with director Vikramaditya Motwane
How did the idea of Trapped come about?
The idea of Trapped came from the writer Amit Joshi about this guy being stuck inside an apartment. I told him to write a screenplay. The moment I got the chance to make this film, I called up Rajkummar and made his film.
Why such a long gap between Lootera and Trapped?
The long gap between Lootera and this film was not planned. I was trying to make Bhavesh Joshi twice but that did not happen.
What would you say about Rajkummar’s talent?
Not just Rajkummar, even Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Varun Dhawan completely submit themselves to the role. You can see them changing themselves for the character and really preparing hard. Rajkummar is not an exception, but I wish I could see more actors working this hard. I am really impressed with Rajkummar but a lot of other actors do this as well. So it’s a good sign for Indian cinema.
arti@khaleejtimes.com