It was Mukesh Bhatt who suggested Cape Town as location for Lootere

MUMBAI: 'Lootere' director Jai Mehta has opened up on the picturesque backdrop of the upcoming action-packed web series 'Lootere'. He revealed the inspiration for Cape Town as the location came from the veteran producer Mukesh Bhatt.

The show revolves around a ship carrying precious cargo and the threat it faces from Somali pirates. It features an ensemble cast that includes Rajat Kapoor, Vivek Gomber, Amruta Khanvilkar and Aamir Ali.

Jai, who's better known as acclaimed director Hansal Mehta's son, said: "We thought of many locations for 'Lootere', including Gujarat, and even thought of building sets in Mumbai. But there were no ships available. The team went to Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Abu Dhabi and even Sharjah to explore further, but we were met with little to no success. There was even a time when we thought of going to Morocco or Egypt."

When the 'Lootere' team was wrestling with options that were not working out, Jai remembers how he coincidentally met Bhatt and shared the problem with him. That was when Bhatt "confidently suggested" Cape Town.

"Now, even though we had already thought of Cape Town as an option before this, we believed it would be too expensive," Jai said.

"When Mukesh Ji said 'the location is economically viable, you have to believe it', we settled on Cape Town as our final location. We realised we would be able to overcome our biggest challenge when we finally landed there. And it was way too pretty compared to the other locations we were considering," added Jai.

Continuing on the choice of Cape Town, Jai added: "If there's one thing I have learned from assisting and working with Hansal sir and Anurag [Kashyap] sir all these years, it is that if the journey is insanely difficult, not only are you doing something right, but also something good can come out of it. That's it. I was convinced this is where we needed to be."

'Lootere' will air on Disney+ Hotstar from March 22.