Mumbai: Can you truly get rid of your past guilt? Lionsgate Play’s Black Lotus takes you on the journey of now-retired Special Ops soldier Matteo Donner and the trauma that made him quit. After five long years, Matteo finally finds his sense of belonging after reconnecting with the family of his dead best friend and partner. But forces intervene and try to hurt John’s family. Can Matteo save his newfound family? Get set for a gripping action-thriller directed by the one and only Todor Chapkanov, the action extraordinaire that has directed the American-Bulgarian fight movie Boyka: Undisputed. So if you love action, guns, and cars, watch Black Lotus on Lionsgate Play on 21 July to see Rico Verhoeven go up against Frank Grillo in a showdown like no other.

Action director Todor Chapkanov talks about the preparations for the film. “For me, it was crucial to spend plenty of time in prep to discuss relationships and scenes with the main actors, so when the actual filming started, everyone knew each other and knew what I wanted. I deliberately asked for the stunt sequences (fights, car chases, etc.) to be choreographed and designed so that the cast could do their own stunts. It took a lot of training and rehearsing, but the result has made it all worthwhile. We could never have achieved the same level of intensity with ’stunt doubles.”

Further adding on about shooting in Amsterdam, Chapkanov said, “One of my goals with Black Lotus was to make the city of Amsterdam part of the story. Writer Tad Daggerhart and I biked to all the places I had in mind and I specifically asked him to re-write and add scenes in order to achieve this goal. I tried to tie the protagonist’s relationships and action scenes to specific locations in order to create a visually striking film.”