‘Acid Factory’ about horror of discovering true self (IANS Preview)

NEW DELHI - Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta is known for making multi-starrer action thrillers. His next offering “Acid Factory”, which releases Friday, continues the trend and is about the horror of self-discovery.

Said to be inspired by Hollywood’s “Unknown” (2006), it has been produced by Gupta’s White Feather Films and directed by Suparn Verma. Made at a budget of Rs.25 crore, including print and publicity, the film is releasing with around 800 prints worldwide.

Starring Aftab Shivdasani, Dino Morea, Manoj Bajpai, Dia Mirza, Fardeen Khan and Irrfan Khan, “Acid Factory” is about five men confined in a factory. What complicates matters is that the past of these men has vanished in a haze of coma and they suffer sudden memory loss.

As the story unfolds through the hazy mist of confusion confounded by loss of memory, the audience is just shown five men who wake up inside an acid factory to find themselves locked in the claustrophobic nowhere land.

What is slowly revealed is that two of the trapped people have been kidnapped and held hostage by the other three for a robbery. But the irony is they themselves don’t know who the hostages are and who the kidnappers are.

Their fears are heightened by a phone call from the gang leader who informs them that he is on his way with the loot and plans to knock off the two hostages as soon as he arrives. Everyone fears for their life and they plan to escape but fail. The boss eventually arrives and what follows is mayhem.

Describing his role, Aftab said: “My character in the film is that of a very aggressive, edgy and violent guy. It was a challenge to portray a character like this because personally I’m a calm person. But my character in the film has a very bad temper.

“I really had to leave myself behind and keep imagining the character so that I could do my best. I couldn’t afford to be calm or composed; I had to be hyper in almost all the scenes.”

Dino plays a wicked character in the movie.

“I am playing a ‘kamina’ in the movie. In the film, we all have lost our memories. So it would be interesting for people to watch it,” said Dino.

After playing roles in many forgetful movies, Dia is also looking forward to the film as she is the only female character in it and has performed several stunts on her own.

” ‘Acid Factory’ is one of my biggest films. I really worked hard for the film,” she said.

With the box office going good with movies like “Do Knot Disturb” and “Wake Up Sid” and a slew of big-budget movies lined up for release, it is to be seen if “Acid Factory” lives up to the buzz and hype too.