5 minutes agoAuthor: Indresh Gupta
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Vikrant Massey’s film ‘Black Out’ has been released on the OTT platform Jio Cinema. It is a dark suspense thriller comedy. It also stars Sunil Grover, Vikrant Massey and Mouni Roy. Neeraj Kothari’s 11:11 Production is also involved in its production. The director is Devang Bhavsar. A special conversation was held with him about the film…
Vikrant and Sunil in a scene from Black Out
Where, how and when did the idea of ’Black Out’ come from?
I always thought that I would make a comedy story based on one night, in which there is a lot of confusion. If I talk about where I got the inspiration for this, then yes, whenever the power goes out, then the mind starts thinking what all can happen in such a situation.
You can understand it like this that one day the lights went out and a light lit up in my mind regarding this story. I always write or create any story from the audience’s point of view. I try to do something in this story that the audience will enjoy.
Was Vikrant the first choice for the film?
Yes, Vikrant was the first choice. Neeraj Kothari and Vikrant had worked together before. While looking for the lead actor, both Neeraj and I felt that there could be no better casting than this. When the audience sees this character, they will find that there are some things that only Vikrant could have done.
He was fitting the character perfectly. It is just like Akshay’s character in ‘Welcome’ gets stuck from many sides.
Sunil Grover had undergone surgery a few days before the shooting of the film. Despite this, he has done action in this film.
What difficulties did you face during the shooting?
The biggest challenge was shooting it at night. Although, some scenes were shot during the day but most of them were night scenes. Shooting at night was challenging not only for the actors but for the entire team because you are working at night and sleeping during the day, in such a situation the body cycle changes.
Then we were shooting on the streets of Pune. Blocking the roads, shooting action sequences, crashing vehicles. Luckily no one got hurt during the shooting. Our stunt master and all of us took utmost care to ensure that no one gets hurt.
Yes, it was definitely challenging for Sunil Grover because he did the action sequences even though he had undergone some surgeries. He himself pushed us to do it.
Does every character in the film have many layers?
Not just Vikrant, there is some mystery behind all the characters in the film. Everyone has a grey shade. I have always tried to explain that every person does not have only two shades, black and white, but there is also grey.
This is what I am trying to explore in this. I am showing that when a person gets greedy and when greed overpowers him, he ends up doing many wrong things. Everyone in this has a back story.
Actress Roy is also seen in an important role in the film.
Does Mouni have a full-fledged role in this or is it just a cameo?
Mouni has a full-fledged role in this and I am damn sure she has not done anything like this before. It was exciting that she joined this film and her role is also very important.
Why did you take it into the dark comedy zone, you could have kept it comical as well?
For me, this film is a comedy. Now how do I explain that it takes a lot of hard work when you try to present a genre in a new way. I have also tried to give it a fresh perspective. I think our mind gets distracted by watching social media, OTT and many other things.
I believe that if the audience is watching this film, then their biggest enemy is their phone. If they pick up their phone while watching the film, it means that somewhere, something is weak in the story. My attempt was to make it such that the audience does not get distracted anywhere else even for a moment.
Its screenplay is so fast that if you miss even a single scene, you will not understand what happened next and why.
Director Devansh Bhavsar with Vikrant during the shooting of the film.
If the film is liked, will you take it forward? What do you have next at the writing level?
It is the audience who will decide whether to take it forward or not. We have not planned this yet. But we have planned that if the audience responds well, we will make its part 2 with Vikrant. Of course we have the story. I have two more films at the writing level. I will start pitching them after the release of this film. One of these is a thriller and the other is a slice of life drama.