Karan Tejpal on Stolen: ‘I wanted to tell a compelling story about colliding worlds’

Director Karan Tejpal almost gave up on his dream of filmmaking before stumbling upon the story that would become Stolen, a gripping drama about two brothers who witness a baby being kidnapped from a tribal woman at a small-town railway station and are forced to confront their privilege.

The idea for Stolen was sparked by a disturbing video Tejpal saw online

The video showed two businessmen were lynched after being mistaken for child snatchers. That incident, and the everyday reality of intersecting worlds in India, formed the heart of the film.

“Disparate worlds colliding isn’t unique in India. But what we tried to do with Stolen was tell an honest and compelling story around that intersection,” Tejpal said in a virtual interview with PTI.

Having worked earlier as an assistant on 3 Idiots and Delhi 6, Tejpal stressed that his creative process begins with finding “the heart of the story.”

Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, Stolen went on to screen at BFI London, IFFM, and several international festivals. It is now streaming on Prime Video. The film stars Abhishek Banerjee and Shubham as the two brothers, with Mia Maelzer playing the tribal mother, Jhumpa Mahato. Harish Khanna and Sahidur Rahaman also appear in key roles.

Banerjee, who plays the privileged and reluctant Gautam Bansal, said he took up the role simply because he loves action dramas.

“I just wanted to have fun with this genre. And the film was so well designed by Karan and Gaurav [Dhingra], it played like a movie even during the narration,” he said.

Yet, working on Stolen proved to be deeply immersive. “It felt like acting school. Every minute on or off set was productive: either rehearsing, writing, or shooting.”

Shubham, an FTII graduate and co-writer of the acclaimed Eeb Allay Ooo!, plays Raman, the empathetic brother who convinces Gautam to help Jhumpa. He admitted he initially worried his character might come off as boring.

Mia Maelzer, portraying Jhumpa, said her goal was to make the pain of a mother losing her child feel authentic. “This kind of pain can’t be acted. It has to be felt. I used everything Karan gave me, from research to reference films, to get as close to the emotion as possible,” she said.

Tejpal acknowledged the film was tough to make. But the industry support, with directors like Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, and Nikhil Advani joining as executive producers, made a significant difference.

Producer and co-writer Gaurav Dhingra recalled feeling shaken when Tejpal first showed him the video that inspired the film. Initially set to shoot in Maharashtra, the team moved to Pushkar, Rajasthan, for a more fitting backdrop. The pandemic caused delays and illness on set, but once the film premiered at Venice, things took off.

“After that, it was like a bullet train, no looking back,” said Dhingra.

For Tejpal, the journey has been unexpectedly rewarding.

“Making a first film is an uphill battle. Before Stolen, I had struggled for a long time and almost gave up. I thought I’d just become a writer. But this story happened organically, and the film has given back to me 500 times more than I ever imagined,” he said.

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