It was physical and mental torture: Rajkummar Rao

Dedicated method actor Rajkummar Rao has been starving himself to play a trauma survivor in Vikramaditya Motwane’s Trapped, a film that Motwane quietly completed while working on his vigilante film Bhavesh Joshi with Harshvardhan Kapoor.

Rajkummar’s film directed by Motwane has only one character, who is trapped in a building. Says the actor, “It’s just the story of one guy who’s stuck in a high-rise. We shot for it last year.”

He undertook an intense dietary preparation to look like a man trapped in the high-rise. “It was very organic and a gradual preparation. I was living in extreme circumstances while we were filming where there was no food or water for days. How will one survive? What happens to our body if not given food or water for days? It was physical and mental torture but I thoroughly enjoyed the process and I’m overwhelmed by the kind of response we’ve got for our film at the MAMI.”

Brie, too

When preparing for her role as a woman held prisoner in a shed in the film Room, Brie Larson decided to isolate herself from the outside world. The 27-year-old American actress stayed at home. She said in an interview to BBC, “I was excited to see what would come up if I tuned out for a while.” Room tells the harrowing story of Ma (Larson), a young mother held captive with her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) in a 10-by-10-foot space with only a skylight and no windows. Her performance won an Oscar.