Having wrapped up India’s Most Wanted shoot, director Rajkumar on his maiden collaboration with the actor
Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; November 13, 2018)

The past three months saw Arjun Kapoor and director Raj Kumar Gupta neck-deep in work as they shot for their ambitious project, India’s Most Wanted. As he wrapped up the shoot yesterday, the director said the espionage thriller — inspired by a secret mission that was conducted between 2012 and 2014 to capture one of the country’s most dreaded terrorists — is the result of three years of hard work.

“I had been researching and writing the script for the past three years. Since it is based on a real event, we shot in real locations, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bihar and Nepal,” says Gupta, who is known for his brand of gritty films.

The film, that marks his first collaboration with Kapoor, sees the actor play intelligence officer Prabhat. “Arjun and I had been chatting about collaborating some time. So working on this film was an organic process. When he read the script, he was as excited about the project as I was. We had the same vision — there were times when I would suggest something, and on other days, he would bring his experience to the table.”

Though the May 2019 release is inspired by real-life events, Gupta has added fictional elements to the narrative. “Any director or writer would like to bring certain emotional elements or traits to a character, so we take some creative liberties.”