A mighty roar

Will Newton director Amit Masurkar score another Oscar entry with his next, Sherni?

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

In a 2017 interview, Amit Masurkar had said that the box office success of hispolitical satire, Newton, showed that there was an audience in India that wanted something more than the usual Bollywood fare. He says Sherni, too,—his third directorial venture, set to be released on Amazon Prime—might appeal to the discerning viewer. Part thriller, part dark humour, the film is set in an area near a jungle where a displaced tigress has wandered into. The story captures the man-animal conflict that ensues.

Vidya Balan plays Vidya Vincent, a forest officer tasked with capturing the tigress. “Now, isn’t this fresh enough for the new age audience?” quips Masurkar.

The film took shape quickly. “The story and screenplay writer Aastha Tiku and research associate Siddhesh Kankekar looked at numerous cases of displaced animals from all over India, and common patterns started emerging. We began assembling a cast and crew of like-minded people and everything happened so fast,” says Masurkar. A third of the film was shot near Bhopal last March, before the lockdown played spoilsport. Then, when things started opening up, the crew regrouped in Balaghat in MP, and shot the rest of the film with strict Covid-19 protocols in place.