Rajkummar Rao willingly batters himself for a scene in Hansal Mehta's 'Omerta'

Rajkummar Rao

From resorting to stringent diets to investing several months in perfecting art forms, Bollywood actors go to several lengths to bring authenticity to their roles. However, Rajkummar Rao, who plays the titular role in Hansal Mehta's Omerta based on terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh's life, has taken preparation to another level.

"There was a scene in which the police remand Omar and I was hung upside down. The action crew and actors were required to thrash me (for the sequence). I asked them to actually beat me up," the actor tells mid-day. While Mehta doesn't entirely subscribe to Rao's methods, he agreed to give him the nod for this unusual request.

"It's important that the scene look authentic. I wanted to feel the pain because that makes Omar mentally strong. I wasn't scared," says Rao, who had also inflicted pain upon himself for his previous collaboration with Mehta, Shahid (2012). "But, the tonality of the two are different. Shahid was emotional, this is brutal."

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British terrorist of Pakistani origin, is infamous for his role in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.