By Akshay Acharya

Mumbai, Jan 27 (IANS): The concept of time loop brings along thrill, reconsideration of choices aided by the butterfly effect and looking in the rear view mirror to sketch the roadmap ahead for a desirable outcome.

The upcoming Hindi film 'Looop Lapeta' starring Taapsee Pannu and Tahir Raj Bhasin, explores these themes while commanding the undivided attention of the audience through a flawless and gripping narrative.

In a recent conversation with IANS, the film's director Aakash Bhatia and its lead actors discussed the technicalities of the film, how they influenced the performances and their approach for the characters.

Aakash states that the camera was itself a character in the film.

He said: "We have taken a treatment led route (for the photography) which is aesthetic and allows a story like this to be compellingly told."

A strong pre-production translated into a rock-solid production with categorical clarity, as the director says, "All the devices and the techniques that we have used are all part of that sort of deliverance of the narrative."

"All the editing and design of the film was preconceived, we have created a lot of edits with the editor and the cinematographer together."

Further breaking down the process of production, he adds, "The shot division and the storyboarding allowed us to make sure that we knew exactly what we were going for. And when we were on the set we were just improvising with the performances and getting those right. Similarly, on the edit once we cracked the beat and the rhythm it was all about making sure that the performances were at the forefront of it all."

Taapsee concurs with her director and explains how such dynamic cinematography adds to the performance as the thought of a camera operating from close quarters plays on the mind.

She says, "I anyway don't look at the monitor. You have to be constantly aware of the surroundings when you're performing and I think the awareness should always be there."

Tahir, who plays Satya explains his approach to the body language and voice modulation for the character.

"I would call him erratic and inconsistent in his body language because he is so reactive to his external circumstances. I actually had to tap into the younger version of myself in school or in college where there was far more energy and body language was all over the place."

Talking about his idea of voice - modulation he adds, "Satya is a bundle of energy and as far as the voice is concerned his pitch is slightly higher than my voice and his rhythm is also a lot faster while he speaks especially under high pressure circumstances."

Taapsee has earlier explored sprinting with 'Rashmi Rocket'.

Ask her did it helped carve her performance of a former athlete in 'Looop Lapeta' and she quips, "It so happened that I had to do Rashmi's sprinting scenes that are the races and immediately after that I had to jump into running portions of 'Looop Lapeta' in Goa."

"So it organically aligned itself in a way that my training for 'Rashmi Rocket' was utilised here without injuring myself because I was running on surfaces like footpaths and roads for this film. 'Rashmi Rocket' involved professional running on tracks which is a safer medium to run on.

"I am glad that I finished Rashmi's portion of running before I jumped into this. The script was written in a way where Rashmi finished and 'Looop Lapeta' began."

The gambling smile of Tahir's character is of the essence in the film.

Revealing how long it took for him to crack that smile, he says, "I guess about a week because the challenge really was that there were a lot of smiles and how do you differentiate one from the other."

"Most importantly, how do you define or differentiate Satya's smile from your own smile in life, because then there would be a danger of everyone calling any of your smiles a gambling smile."

"Through this interview I would like to inform everyone that all the Smiles Are inspired by Aakash Bhatia", he says and the team signs off.