Lootera, /luːˈteɪrɑː/ (English: Robber), is a 2013 Bollywood period romantic drama film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and partly based on author O. Henry's 1907 short story The Last Leaf. It is the second film directed by Motwane afer his critically acclaimed film Udaan. Set in the era of 1950s, the film stars Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha in lead roles. The producers of the film being Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap and Vikas Bahl, the film features music and background score by Amit Trivedi with all song lyrics penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya and cinematography by Mahendra J. Shetty. Lootera released to worldwide critical acclaim on July 5, 2013.
- Ranveer Singh as Varun Shrivastav aka Atmanand Tripathi
- Sonakshi Sinha as Pakhi Roy Chaudhary
- Barun Chanda as Zamindar
- Vikrant Massey as Devdas
- Arif Zakaria as A.K.Bajpai
- Adil Hussain as Inspector K.N. Singh
- Divya Dutta as Shyama
- Shirin Guha as Devyani
- Prince Hayer as Guest Appearence
Lootera is an adaptation of O. Henry's The Last Leaf. In the picturesque town of Manikpur (West Bengal) of 1953, the zamindar goes to watch a Chhau dance along with his daughter, Pakhi Roy Chaudhary, an aspiring writer. After Pakhi has an asthma attack from the ensuing excitement, she is rushed home and is given medication. As she recuperates, her father comforts her and narrates the story of the invincible king whose soul resided inside a parrot, and then proceeds to tell her that she is the parrot within whom his life resides.
One day while learning to drive a car, Pakhi accidentally bumps into a motorcycle and mildly injures a handsome youth. While he is being treated, Pakhi gets drawn towards him. A few days later, the same youth introduces himself to the zamindar as Varun Shrivastav, an archaeologist who needs to study the land surrounding the temple owned by the zamindar. Over the next few weeks, Varun charms the zamindar and his daughter with his knowledge and persona, and is invited along with his assistant, to live at their home.
Soon, love brews between Varun and Pakhi as they bond over art and literature, and their love culminates into a passionate affair. Meanwhile, an act passed by the Indian government debars the powers of zamindars causing tension in the Chaudhary household.
As Varun's stay comes to an end, he proposes to Pakhi and preparations of their wedding begin thereafter. But on the wedding day, Varun is nowhere to be found, and it is discovered that the idols from the temple have been stolen and the currency notes from the purchase of the family's artefacts (arranged by Varun), turn out to be counterfeit.
An year later, Pakhi is living all alone in Dalhousie. Her father has passed away and she has still not recovered from her heartbreak. When a police inspector asks her in helping him nab Varun, she refuses to do so. Soon after that, Varun and his friend turn up at Dalhousie for their next heist and coincidentally stay at a lodge on Pakhi's property. Things turn ugly when the police gets wind of their whereabouts and a chase ensues. After Varun accidentally kills his friend along with a constable, he seeks refuge in Pakhi's house.
Although Pakhi does not turn him over to the police, she is nevertheless enraged and repels Varun's comforting advances and explanation. In a letter, she explains to Varun that she is dying of tuberculosis and will pass away the day the last leaf falls from the wilting tree outside the window.
Varun then plans his escape but refuses to go and takes care of the ailing Pakhi instead. Soon Pakhi warms up to him and her faith remains intact when each day she finds one last leaf remaining on the tree.
Eventually, it is revealed that apart from taking care of Pakhi, he also used to paint a leaf and tie it on a branch of the tree everyday so that she doesn't give up hope. In the end, as he is about to escape, Varun is shot down by the police while Pakhi realizes everything after she looks at the painted leaf closely and smiles with tears in her eyes.
The music and background score for the film is composed by Amit Trivedi, with all song lyrics penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya. The music of the film is set in the styles of old Bollywood era. The composer opted to keep two "antras" followed by a "mukhra" in the songs, matching to the 1950s styles of composition. The composer recorded the Chennai String Orchestra for the score. The fourth song of the album "Monta Re" has its musical influence from the Baul musical tradition of Bengal. An old time song 'Tadbeer se bigdi huyi taqdeer banale' from Bazi (1951)is played on the radio. The complete film soundtrack album was released online on 29 May 2012.
The audio was launched at PVR Cinemas, Juhu in Mumbai on 7 June 2013. The music composer claimed, "The music of this film is a tribute to R. D. Burman in terms of melody and orchestration." He performed the song "Zinda" and songs "Sawaar Loon", "Manmarziyan", "Monta Re" were performed by singer Shilpa Rao and lyricist-singers Amitabh Bhattacharya and Swanand Kirkire, live at the event.
In November 2011, the filmmakers confirmed Sonakshi Sinha and Ranveer Singh for the lead roles. By December 2011, both the actors attended workshops for the look of the character, body language, speech as the film was set in Bengal in the era of 1950s. Subarna Ray Chaudhari undertook extensive research to design the costumes for the characters to fit the required look. A romantic song was shot in December 2011. The first schedule was completed in Mumbai by end of December 2011. In January 2012, the set of the film erected in Dalhousie, where the actors were to shoot over for few days was destroyed due to bad weather that caused heavy losses amounting to 50 lac.
The weather forced the crew to trek through knee-high snow. However, certain scenes were canned at Kalatop, close to Dalhousie. The schedule was postponed to March 2012. The next schedule began in Kolkata from January 23, 2012 and continued in rural parts of West Bengal. Scenes involving Ranveer, Sonakshi and Barun Chandawere shot at the 11th century Jain temple in Deulghata and Belkuri. The area being Maoist affected, with great risk the entire cast and crew shot scenes under heavy police control. In March 2012, the team made its second attempt to shoot in Dalhousie, but actor Ranveer Singh injured his back and hence the schedule was postponed to May 2012. During May 2012, the team made its third attempt to shoot at Dalhousie wherein scenes that were left out to be filmed in the snow were shot by creating a set under artificial snowy conditions in summer season. Certain scenes featuring Shirin Guha and Arif Zakaria separately were wrapped up by March 2012. Along with potential 50 crew members the leading duo shot at Royal Palace of Khanyan in the Hooghly district. Old house scenes were later filmed in Purulia.
The final schedule of the film took place inMumbai, and was wrapped up in July 2012 The filming was complete by the end of August 2012 and the release date was scheduled to March 29, 2013. The first trailer released in March 2013 later revealed that the film would release on July 5, 2013.
