Akshay Kumar had a wall of 500 real serial killers while shooting for Cuttputli

Akshay Kumar, while shooting a scene in the upcoming film Cuttputli in which he is trying to understand the mentality and the ideology of a serial killer, had a wall with over 500 real newspaper clippings of real stories and faces of the criminals. 

The film is based in the small town of Kasauli where a cop Arjan Sethi (Akshay) is in pursuit of a serial killer.

Speaking about the clippings and the scene, director Ranjit M Tewari said, "Akshay sir's character - Arjan Sethi is obsessed with the crime world and the world of serial killing. He starts the journey as a character of a filmmaker in the Punjabi film industry, who is obsessed and has done research over seven to ten years to make a film on the crime world."

The director added that when they were creating his character's world - the house and the setting, it was very important to give Akshay a space in which he feels part of the character.

"Therefore we decked up the entire wall with newspaper cuttings and photographs of real people, so that he gets a feel that he has lived this life.”

Ranjit shared that the art department, production designers and the ADs, all came together and decided to find real images and real newspaper articles.

"We decided to have them from archive, research and websites. Find the real images of those times, whether it is Ted Bundy, or Seema Gavit, or Cyanide Mohan, all these people from India as well as from people abroad who are serial killers and real articles and put it up on the wall. When Akshay sir saw it for the first time before shooting, he was so so happy with the kind of detailing that went into building the foundation from where he could start shooting the film."

Cuttputli is produced by Vashu Bhagnani and Jackky Bhagnani, Deepshikha Deshmukh and Pooja Entertainment. It will premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on September 2.