Film on Neeraj Grover's murder psyches out actor

Mumbai, July 5 (IANS) If hearing a gruesome murder story can give you gooseflesh, then playing a pivotal role in a film inspired by television executive Neeraj Grover's murder can affect your mind, says actor Deepak Dobriyal.

Deepak stars in 'Not A Love Story', a crime thriller helmed by Ram Gopal Varma that comes out Aug 19, which features Mahie Gill and Ajay Gehi.

'The way Ramuji used to narrate the story or the scene to us, it used to really shake us up. During initial shooting days, I couldn't sleep at night because I used to get those visions. It really affected me mentally. But that was important also because I had to be completely in my character to act it in front of the camera,' Deepak told IANS in an interview.

'I got really psyched out in the beginning and used to get up at night. But then I got used to it and the feeling sank in,' added the actor who was seen in films like 'Tanu Weds Manu', 'Teen Thay Bhai', 'Gulaal', 'Delhi 6' and 'Omkara'.

Neeraj Grover was murdered in 2008 and it led to the arrest of Kannada actress Maria Susairaj and her boyfriend Emile Jerome Mathew. According to reports, Grover was stabbed and then cut in 300 pieces.

Maria was sentenced to three years in jail last week for destroying evidence in the Grover murder case. Since she had already served more than three years as an undertrial, she was ordered to be released once she had paid the compensation amount of Rs.50,000 to the victim's family.

Her co-accused and fiance, ex-naval officer Mathew, was sentenced to 10 years' jail term after the court found him 'guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder'.

In the film, Deepak plays a possessive and aggressive lover who kills the other character and says the film is inspired by one of the most gruesome crimes of passion.

'Instead of calling it based on the murder, it's better that we say it was inspired by it. A lot of incidents happen around you and you tend to use aspects of them in a film. But it's not based on that incident; there are a lot of changes,' he said.

The first look of the film is out and it is being termed as very gory. When asked the 35-year-old actor whether people will accept so much violence, he said: 'It is not violent.'

'The treatment of the film makes it look violent, otherwise it is not. There are no scenes that are actually violent or gruesome, but the treatment with technical aspects and camera angle is such that it looks scary. Otherwise, there isn't so much blood or anything,' he said.

For the film, Deepak has also changed his look as both 'Ramuji and I wanted a changed look. I tried the look and showed it to him and he instantly said yes and finalised it.

'Changing the appearance was also important because the other guy in the film, his character, looks very decent; so if even I would have kept a similar look then there would have been no difference in us. So in order to create drama, I changed my look,' he added.