Exclusive! Lakadbaggha director Victor Mukherjee: Making dogs act on camera is challenging

Filmmaker Victor Mukherjee - whose new action-thriller animal vigilante film Lakadbaggha, starring Anshuman Jha and Ridhi Dogra, is releasing this week - says that one of the biggest challenges he faced while making the movie was shooting with dogs and making them act on camera.

The story of the film revolves around a young fellow, who takes care of stray dogs, and how one day he encounters a hyena (or lakadbaggha), followed by an illegal wildlife trade racket that he eventually tries to expose.

When asked about the challenges he faced while working on the projects, Victor told OTTplay, “There were multiple challenges while making this film, since it’s a different story and for the first time we are attempting to make an animal vigilante film. We wanted to make the film with people who would understand our vision. Before I get into the details of that, I must say that shooting with dogs, especially making them act is such a tough task. You know you cannot control their expression, a dog is not a trained actor. And in a scene, you need the response on time. They may look cute, but capturing their cuteness on camera is a completely different game altogether.”

It’s an action thriller and each action sequence is designed uniquely, by using a special martial art form, called Krav Maga. The director shared how it was a big risk that they had taken. “You see, we keep talking about realistic cinema and real content. But when it comes to big-canvas action films, we have seen sequences, where everything - from people to cars - fly in the air. We are also familiar with larger-than-life action sequences. In our film, we are showing hand-to-hand combat and no one is flying in the air! (laughs). As the protagonist of the film Arjun Bakshi is a regular fellow, he is beating people but also getting beaten up, as it happens in real life. So, it is a huge risk to take, at a time when in every film, every action sequence is a result of wirework,” Victor explained.

The film - also featuring Milind Soman and Piyush Pahuja - is produced by First Ray Films, and it releases in on January 13.