The makers of Taapsee Pannu's Gandhari unveiled the trailer at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday, with The Free Press Journal in attendance. The film follows a fierce mother who will go to any length to protect her child.
Taapsee plays a visually impaired woman in the action thriller and revealed that she worked closely with a visually impaired person to understand the nuances of the character.
"I worked with him in terms of understanding how the walk should be, how much you can see shadows, what your peripheral vision feels like. That helped me take care of my body language. Also, you will also get to see how my character's blindness helps her and to what extent it stays with her," she said.
Speaking about what drew her to the project, Taapsee said writer-producer Kanika Dhillon approached her knowing she was open to action films after Baby and Naam Shabana. "Kanika knew that after Naam Shabana and Baby, I was ready to do an action film. What attracted me was this was very different from the things I've done before."
Taapsee also explained that the action in Gandhari is driven more by her character's emotions. "This film is very emotional-driven. So there was no strategy like 'Okay, these are going to be my moves.' My character has no idea about martial arts. Her only qualification is that she is a mother and to what extent she can go for her daughter. All the action and thrill you will get to see through her emotions. That was also the beauty of this story for me."
Kanika revealed that motherhood played a key role in inspiring the story. Recalling an incident involving her own son, she said, "I completely changed as a writer after becoming a mother. My son was just born and I had to take him to get an injection. During my pregnancy I was researching about child abduction and how children get abducted from hospitals. So when we went to get my son an injection, I told my sister to run after the doctor and bring my child back. So this fear and emotion is something I discovered. I realised there is no limit to how far a mother can go to save her child."
Directed by Devashish Makhija, Gandhari also stars Ishwak Singh, Chhaya Kadam, Mita Vashisht and Jatin Sarna. It will stream on Netflix from September 3.
