To director Raj Singh Chaudhary (below), Thar is the result of his two loves — western thrillers, and his home state Rajasthan. As someone who was fascinated with the genre from the get-go, the filmmaker believed that the arid terrain of Rajasthan provided the perfect setting for such stories.

“I was a fan of the western genre right from my childhood. I loved western comics and novels. I belong to a part of Rajasthan that [doesn’t have] palaces and deserts. When I used to watch western films, [I’d notice how] the landscape was similar [to that of the state]. So, I wrote the story around [this setting],” says the director.

The Netflix film, starring Anil and Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor, tells the story of an antique dealer who heads to a village that has been rocked by violent killings. The team did an extensive recce, scouting for locations that would add mood to the proceedings. “The major prep was finding the locations that I had visually imagined. The second part [of the prep] was creating visual references. For instance, we created a dhaba that didn’t look like a regular dhaba. We also found an antique shop in Ajmer that matched our film’s style.”

With a chunk of the drama filmed in real locations, Chaudhary admits that it was a physically demanding shoot. “It was a tough shoot, but it was fun as well. We would trek for half-an-hour carrying equipment on our shoulders. When we would get tired and sit down, Anil would continue walking on, saying, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ With Anil and Satish Kaushik sir, you learn a lot just by being with them on set.”