Mumbai: Director Jai Mehta, who is receiving a lot of acclaim for his latest web series ‘Lootere’, has said that he is an actor’s director, in the sense that he believes in jamming with the actors over a scene and see what they can bring to the table outside of the scope of the script.
The series stars Rajat Kapoor, Vivek Gomber, Amruta Khanvilkar, Aamir Ali and others. It follows Rajat Kapoor as the ship captain and his struggle with a criminal legacy of pirates.
Sharing insights on his process of working with the actors, Jai Mehta said: “The process that I follow is something I have learnt from Hansal sir that the reason we’re casting an actor is to see what they can bring to the table. Actors are our immediate collaborators and also the makers of the show along with us.”
He then gave an example of a scene in the show which was taken in a different direction by the actors after improvisation.
He said: “In a scene in Lootere where Vivek Gomber’s character meets Rajat’s character who is the Captain of the ship for the first time, it was written differently but we asked them to do what they think they should do. I’m an actor’s director, so we enact the scene with our actors first and then I tell my cinematographer how the actors are going to do the scene so let’s frame it accordingly.”
Elaborating more on what he has learnt from his father, Jai Mehta said, “I take his feedback and opinions really seriously and it matters not just to me but to everyone on the set. He comes with a lot of experience and when I co-directed the series Scam with him, my learning curve was huge even though I had assisted him in so many films before. I still have so much to learn from him. He is always calm on sets, I have never seen him lose his cool.”
‘Lootere’ streams on Disney+ Hotstar.
–IANS