Sep 17, 2026 7:00pm IST
Vikramaditya Motwane On Radhika Apte’s ‘Incredible’ Focus On Set: ‘She Would Feed Her Baby And Come Back’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Vikramaditya Motwane has worked with Radhika Apte in “Sacred Games,” but his experience directing her in “Lust Stories 3” left him particularly impressed. The filmmaker says he was amazed by Apte’s ability to remain completely focused on her performance while balancing the demands of being a new mother.
“I think I was pleasantly surprised by the way Radhika was so focused on my set. I have worked with her before in ‘Sacred Games’,” Motwane says. He reveals that Apte shot the project four months after her child’s birth and had her baby with her on set every day. “She would have to leave at a certain point in time to feed and to make sure the baby was comfortable and come back and do a scene,” he says.
Despite having another major responsibility on her mind, Motwane says Apte could instantly transition back into her character whenever she returned to set.
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“Even with all of that, where you know that part of her mind is somewhere else. And yet I could see, I was amazed at how she’s been able to compartmentalize, switch off everything else around her to focus right there and give her 1000% into that take,” he says.
For Motwane, it wasn’t simply Apte’s performance, but the level of concentration and control required to achieve it, that stood out. “She was able to stay perfectly within character and I was just so amazed at that level of professionalism. It was really incredible.”
Glancing back at his work, Motwane is taking a more forgiving look at one of his earlier films. The filmmaker recently revisited ‘Lootera’ in a theatre, a film that underperformed when it was released but has since developed a strong following. “It underperformed when it came out. I was always a little ambivalent about the thing,” he says.
Motwane admits that his relationship with the film has been complicated, largely because of the experience of making it. Coming off “Udaan,” the filmmaker suddenly found himself working on a much larger production, starring Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, who were young stars at the time.
“‘Lootera’ was a very difficult process for me personally. I think coming off ‘Udaan’ and making it, you suddenly feel thrown into this. You think, I’m making a very indie art film and I’ve got Ranveer and Sonakshi who were at that point the young stars.” That contrast triggered what Motwane describes as an intense period of anxiety. “I went through an anxiety-like borderline attack,” he recalls.
As the years passed, however, Motwane watched the film gain affection from audiences, even as he remained somewhat conflicted about it. Revisiting it in a theatre offered him a different perspective. “My relationship with that film has been a little bit odd, but I know over the years it has picked up a lot of love. I saw it, and I was like, this is not bad.”
Motwane has directed the first film in the “Lust Stories 3” anthology starring Konkona Sen Sharma, Radhika Apte, Vijay Varma and Abhishek Banerjee.
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