Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016)

Interesting facts

• Box office: ₹70M
• Budget: ₹35M
• Earned 2× its budget

Raman Raghav 2.0 is a 2016 Indian neo-noir psychological crime thriller film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. Produced by Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vikas Bahl, and Madhu Mantena, the film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, and debutante Sobhita Dhulipala. It depicts in eight chapters the cat and mouse chase of serial killer Ramanna (Siddiqui) by corrupt cop Raghavan (Kaushal). Real-life killer Raman Raghav, who operated in Mumbai during the 1960s, inspired the film.

Production

Raman Raghav 2.0 was inspired by the notorious serial killer Raman Raghav, who had killed several homeless people in Mumbai during the late 1960s. Bludgeoning his victims, he produced widespread panic until he was captured by the Mumbai police and confessed to 41 murders.

Director Anurag Kashyap first became interested in the story of Raman Raghav in 1991, when Sriram Raghavan was making a 68-minute film about the killer titled Raman Raghav, A City, A Killer. Kashyap was drawn to the idea of a criminal who was not motivated by familiar human vices. According to him, the killer had "no moral compass or planning" to kill someone.

Kashyap said that Nawazuddin Siddiqui was his first casting choice for the film because of his "unimposing body". Kashyap modelled the character on Raghubir Yadav, who had portrayed Raman Raghav in Sriram Raghavan's 1991 film. Siddiqui left his home for two days without informing anyone and started to "fear himself" while preparing for the role.

Vicky Kaushal was called by Kashyap and was given two scenes to prepare in five days for the audition. Kaushal locked himself in the room and isolated himself from phone, internet and newspaper and kept repeating his lines from the scenes. He then gave the audition and was selected for the role of Raghav. Miss Earth India 2013, Sobhita Dhulipala made her acting debut with this film.

Principal photography began in September 2015 and was completed on 22 November 2015. Kashyap wrote smaller scenes: "Normal Hindi films have [about] 70 scenes; my films have 220 scenes". He mentioned that it helped in making the film look vast as the locations kept changing. The title was decided before the script was ready. The crew employed guerrilla filmmaking technique to shoot in real locations of Mumbai.

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