Stolen

Stolen (2023)

No good deed goes unpunished

The five-month-old baby of impoverished tribal woman Jhumpa Mahato is stolen. Two brothers, Gautam and Raman, who witness the kidnapping, try to help her and become embroiled in the complexities of the investigation.

Date of release
2023-08-02
TMDB
7.2 / 10 (40)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
Karan Tejpal

Casting

Interesting facts

Stolen is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language thriller film directed by Karan Tejpal and produced by Gaurav Dhingra under the banner of Jungle Book Studio. The film stars Abhishek Banerjee in the lead role. The film delves into the harrowing journey of two urban brothers who become entangled in the desperate search for a kidnapped baby, but circumstances spiral out of control when they are themselves mistaken for the kidnappers leading to an extended road battle for survival. The film intends to highlight the themes of trust, conscience, and societal divides.

Production

The director of the film, Karan Tejpal, approached producer Gaurav Dhingra with an article about a real-life incident in which two young boys were mob-lynched in Assam in 2018. Deeply shaken by the event, Tejpal was determined to craft a film inspired by it. Pre-production began in 2019, but the production process was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventually, production resumed between 2022 and 2023.

As the producer, Gaurav Dhingra was committed to ensuring that the film was made on a scale that would resonate with a global audience. Swapnil Salkar, also known as 'Agadbumb', collaborated with Karan Tejpal and Gaurav Dhingra to co-write the dialogues and screenplay, shaping the film into a socially charged action thriller.

Initially, the team considered filming the entire movie in a single take. Although the idea was later dropped, the final film still features several long takes and immersive sequences. Stolen was shot in Pushkar, Rajasthan, with many of the mob members portrayed by real locals from the area.

Actor Abhishek Banerjee was excited by this unconventional filmmaking approach. He expressed his happiness at seeing the results match the vision they were shooting for. During production, crew members often had to walk several kilometers into remote desert locations to capture the film’s intense scenes.

The film had its world premiere at the 80th Venice Film Festival in 2023 where it received a standing ovation and also received recognition at the Zurich Film Festival. Sharing his thoughts on Stolen being screened at the Zurich Film Festival this year, producer Gaurav Dhingra of Jungle Book Studio, said in a statement, "This is such a special moment for us.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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