Taapsee Pannu takes a shot at another feisty role with 'Looop Lapeta'

Bollywood actor and filmmaker Aakash Bhatia on their latest thriller out now

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Somya Mehta

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Published: Fri 4 Feb 2022, 5:58 PM

Last updated: Sat 5 Feb 2022, 1:30 AM

A Bollywood adaptation of the popular German thriller Run Lola Run, Looop Lapeta stars Taapsee Pannu, known to play feisty female characters onscreen, alongside Tahir Raj Bhasin, who the world has suddenly woken up to, with his three back-to-back releases in 83, Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein and Ranjish Hi Sahi.

Marking the directorial debut of seasoned ad filmmaker Aakash Bhatia, Looop Lapeta transports you into an eccentric, new world, where nothing – not even death – seems final. A complex concept seamlessly comes to life, with the filmmaker’s astute vision and the director of photography, Yash Khanna’s outlandish aesthetics. In a conversation with City Times, Taapsee Pannu and Aakash Bhatia tell us what fascinated them to recreate the world of a celebrated cult classic and why Pannu was the organic casting.


The look and feel of the characters in Looop Lapeta is very distinct. Whether it’s Satya’s nose pin or Savi’s athleisure, how does the physicality of the character help you understand their mind frame?

Taapsee: The physicality is half of it. When you wear a certain outfit or you don a certain look, it changes you in a way. Your body language changes. So be it Satya’s nose pin or the way I was dressed, our backgrounds are conceived in the way we look. Savi has been an athlete so her appearance and body language has to match and that’s why she’ll be able to run the way she does in the film. It’s kind of like a hand-in-glove situation. And when the background research and planning has been done so well, the job becomes pretty easy for us. Since I had also done Rashmi Rocket right before, I knew the mind frame of an athlete. I also know of a lot of sports people around me. I follow a lot of sports activities. So, I could tap into the mind frame easily, of how the life of a very disciplined sportsperson changes completely when their life comes to an abrupt halt. And how you need to channelise that part of yourself again, to save someone you love so dearly.


It’s also refreshing to see the woman save the man for a change. Taapsee, you seem to be an obvious choice for playing an empowered woman on screen now, given your trajectory of work and also your personality off-screen…

Taapsee: The saving kinds? (laughs) I wouldn’t say I have saved people, but I’ve always seen myself as the hero of my own story. I’ve never been the person who has waited for someone to help me. I chose such things in life where I had to save myself and help myself. I didn’t really have an option of looking up to someone to help me out. So, I always associate myself with taking charge because I didn’t have any other option in life than to do that from the very beginning. Hence, I think it comes very naturally to me and that is the organic casting. We’ve never had issues with men doing that for decades, so I’m perfectly fine repeating that in my films.

Aakash, you’ve directed several ad films and short episodes before. What made you venture into feature films with this particular project?

Aakash Bhatia: I think the challenge of a film like this is what makes it exciting. You get to create a world and this world only exists because it’s in a film. It’s a world where you get to tell the story thrice over. And each time, you have to create something new for the audience to latch onto and be a part of the characters’ journey. Obviously, the core concept of a loop has been inspired by Run Lola Run, but we’ve tried to make it our own in every way possible, whether it’s through the writing, the new characters, the way we’ve produced the film. To be able to take that challenge up in your first film and create a film led by authorship was what excited me. And working on ad films allows you to sharpen your knives on all the commercials, which I’ve been able to use for this film, in all the quirky things you see visually.

The cinematography here is unlike any other film in recent times. It takes a life of its own and almost feels bizarre at times, to be looking at the characters from such intimate and distinct angles…

Taapsee: The lighting and cinematography make an important element in the film. Tahir and I used to just sit and laugh on the sets, wondering which colours would be thrown at us on the day. It was a very different shooting set up, with so many points of view. The camera was too close in proximity and we had to treat it like a character in frame. I could literally head bang the camera at times. It was not just Tahir and I performing the scene, it was also the camera and DOP Yash Khanna along with us. So, all intimate moments were shot between the three of us. It was a very new style of performance.

Aakash: Everything is a bizarre idea till you put it on paper and then you go and execute it. I think a lot of the things were imagined and conceived because we wanted to build a different world. We wanted to treat it like a graphic novel, almost like a comic book. It’s not just a story being told on its own, there is a story within a story as well. Everybody on the set understood the vision that we were going for, and they brought their own perspective to etch it out.

The process allowed us to have fun on the film because it was new for the actors. As intrusive as it was, they allowed us to roll with it.

The way this film is shot, the aesthetics would’ve been a delight to watch on the big screen. Was it a conscious choice to release it on OTT?

Aakash: We made it for the big screen, but I think art today has to transcend all the mediums that it will be displayed on. It was never conceived for just one medium. It was conceived as a piece of filmmaking, as a film we wanted to watch, so we’ve gone out there and made it.

Yes, a theatrical gives you the glory and the community experience, but this also does what it does and does it really well.

Although this as an adaptation and not a remake, Run Lola Run is considered a cult classic. Was there ever a fear of comparison?

Taapsee: We knew that there will be comparisons, but the comparisons will stop the moment the film starts.

People who would’ve watched the original will not feel like it’s a remake, they’ll know it’s an adaptation.

People who’ve recently watched the film also pointed this out. And rightfully so, the time in which this film is set is different, it’s for an Indian audience. So, there are many new and different nuances.

Whether you like the film or don’t like it is subjective like with any other film but it will be clear that it’s an adaptation rather than a remake. We had this confidence in our intuition.

Lastly, has there been any moment in your personal life where you felt like you’ve been stuck in a loop?

Taapsee: The Covid loop! The last two years, we’ve been stuck in it. It’s the third loop now…


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