Aakash Bhatia believes the beauty of his first feature film, Looop Lapeta, is that it cannot be boxed in a genre. While its source material — the German cult film, Run Lola Run (1998) — is a thriller at its core, Bhatia says he has played with form and style to make the Taapsee Pannu-led adaptation “a genre-jumping film.” “We have constantly used the term because the film slides into humour, then slides out of it to tap into emotions, and so on. So, we have tried to [explore different tracks] through its treatment. I would call it a genre-jumping film that allows every emotion to exist,” says the director.
Aakash Bhatia
The Netflix film revolves around Pannu’s character Savi, who has to get hold of R50 lakh to save her boyfriend Satya — essayed by Tahir Raj Bhasin — from his gangster boss. What follows is a quirky ride of life-altering decisions. Bhatia knows that the film, with its theme of time loop and eccentric characters, may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that hasn’t stopped him from exploring unconventional ideas. “Conventions [in storytelling] have been created because people keep repeating those things. Here, we had the opportunity to make something fresh that is treatment- and performance-led. We were excited about it, and played on the front foot.”
