The making of the series Looter is quite interesting.

Lootere: Disney Plus is streaming the web series Lootere on Hotstar these days. The story of this series has been created based on Somalian pirates. Three episodes have been streamed so far. Whereas, the remaining episodes will be released one by one every Thursday on a weekly basis. The showrunner of this web series is famous producer director Hansal Mehta. His son Jai Mehta is making his debut as director of the series, while Vivek Gomber, Sneha Khanvilkar and Rajit Kapoor are the important faces of the series. This article by Urmila Kori on the making of this show and the challenges related to it.

The series is inspired by YouTuber Paramveer’s videos and Somalian documentaries.

This is a story of piracy and bad guys set in Somalia. For the first time this kind of content is related to the story of a web series. Showrunner Hansal Mehta tells that the story of the series is a complete fantasy. It bears no resemblance to any incident you may have seen before, but it is inspired by several true events. The research work of this series is very realistic. Passenger Paramveer is a YouTuber. He has been to Somalia and saw, met and talked to many people. We were inspired by his video and tried to understand what happens in Mogadishu, Somalia. When the series writer Suparn Verma wrote this story, he also watched many documentary films. When I read the script of this series, my first question was whether this really happens, he showed me a documentary which was real. He showed me an Oscar-winning short film made in Somalia by a Somali filmmaker. Research work is real, hence this fictional story also shows a mirror to the society.

Vasan Bala was the first director of the film

While giving information, show runner of the series, Hansal Mehta says that when Suparn Verma was writing the story of this series. At that time it was decided that Vasan Bala would direct this series, but when the script was completed. At that time Vasan was busy with his film Monica O My Darling. After which creator Shailesh R Singh approached me. After a year and a half of completing the script, it reached me that I had to do this. At that time I was busy with the scoop. During that time Jai’s name came up. I said that Jai should decide this. If he likes the story of the series, then he can start directing it. He was very excited by the script of the series. Although this is Jai’s first project as a director, but he has been working with me for the last 12 years. He has played different roles in post production in many of my projects.

Vivek Gomber’s audition lasted for six months

Along with this series Lootere, casting of Hansal Mehta’s web series Scam 2 was also going on at that time. Two actors were finalized for the role of Vikrant Gandhi in the series. Giving this information, Hansal Mehta says that Scam 2’s Gagan Dev Rayar was also shortlisted along with Vivek Gomber, but casting director Mukesh Chhabra said that Gagan Dev would be more perfect for the role of Telgi. After that Vivek was called for look test. Recalling the process of joining this project, Vivek further says that I am grateful that I got such an opportunity. I am lucky that I got this role. My role in the film Sir was highly appreciated and it was a different character. Here I have got a lot of freedom to explore myself. My casting lasted for six months. I gave my first audition in January, then we gave four more auditions. Finally we did the look test in July, I was signed. I was very nervous about how the audience would accept me. Hopefully he will like my work.

Story of Somalia but shooting in South Africa

The story of the series is based on Somalia but the shooting has not taken place in Somalia. Giving information, the film’s director Jai Mehta says that shooting in Somalia was not possible. We have shot the film in Cape Town, South Africa. We had seen many locations before this. We also went to Ukraine, but there was war going on so shooting there was difficult. Besides this, shooting with a ship is very difficult. Ships are expensive even when docked. They have to be maintained and the crew has to be paid. For water ships we also went to Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, Egypt. Meanwhile, we have heard that a ship has been standing in Cape Town for two months, after which it was decided that Cape Town would be perfect. We completed our project by working continuously in seven months. We couldn’t afford to go back again because it would stretch the show’s budget. A team of twenty people had gone from India and 20 people were included from South Africa.

Shooting in the sea was not easy
Samudra is also an important character in the story of this series. Calling it one of the most important challenges of shooting, the film’s director Jai Mehta says that shooting in the sea was not easy because the boats did not remain stable. We had a big ship and it would not remain stable. Anything seemed to fall at any time.
I used to shoot this big ship from a small boat but the waves created havoc, nothing could be shot steadily. While sitting in a small boat, we were often not able to talk through walkie talkie even at a distance of five minutes. Actually, walkies did not work there due to strong winds. Along with the sea, there was also the problem of weather. Sometimes it was very sunny. Sometimes it started raining. Sometimes the temperature would become very low. Due to which almost the entire cast and crew fell ill at least once. Well, it is not that everything was bad. During shooting, I see dolphins and whales at least once a day. Apart from this, sea lions and otters also used to come to the swimming pool of our hotel many times, because the hotel was near the sea.

The crew’s truck was looted during the shooting
The only female artist in this series is actress Amrita Khanvilkar. She tells that she had only one audition and was selected in a single day, but the shooting of this film and waiting for its release was very difficult for her. Amrita tells that the shooting of the series has been done in South Africa but we were not able to explore anything else except shooting. Actually, at that time the economy there had become very bad because of Omnicron. People had no work and money. When we were shooting, our truck was also looted once, which had food items in it. The owner of the bungalow where we were shooting was killed. Due to Corona, the economic condition of the people had become very bad. There were very difficult circumstances. I was asked to always keep the door of the vanity van closed. There was a fear that I might get kidnapped. We shot in very difficult situations. After shooting, waiting for the release of the series was also difficult. Work on this series has been going on for almost four years. I would praise director Jai for his patience in sticking to this project for so long. We actors were also doing other work, so there was a long wait for the release of this series.

Somali actor Armaan is a fan of Akshay Kumar
Talking about the casting of this show based on Somali background, foreign actors are also important faces of this series. Director Jai Mehta tells that but not all the actors are Somali. There was someone from Durban, someone from Cape Town, only one Somali actor was in the series. Is in the series which speaks the name of Akshay Kumar. His name is Arman, he is Somali. He is a crazy type fan of Akshay Kumar. He knows every song of Akshay Kumar. He remembers every dialogue by heart. He has seen all the films of Akshay Kumar.

Lootere OTT Release: Hansal Mehta’s web series ‘Lootere’ released on this OTT