Taapsee Pannu, Kanika Dhillon Redefine Action in Netflix’s ‘Gandhari’

Exploring Maternal Fury in “Gandhari”: A Netflix Thriller

Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned in “Gandhari,” the upcoming Netflix thriller that promises to shatter expectations of both the action genre and Indian mythology.

In an exclusive interview with Variety, actor Taapsee Pannu and writer-producer Kanika Dhillon delve into their latest collaboration, a project that reimagines the bounds of maternal love through the lens of high-octane action.

The film, described by Dhillon as an “intense revenge action thriller,” centers around a mother’s quest to rescue her kidnapped child. “‘Gandhari’ is the story of a mom whose child has been snatched away from her, and what lengths she is going to go to get her daughter back,” Dhillon said. “It’s emotional, it’s powerful. It’s a story of revenge and redemption.”

For Pannu, who has previously ventured into the espionage action genre with films like “Baby” and “Naam Shabana,” “Gandhari” represents a fresh challenge. “I wanted to do action for quite some time,” Pannu said. “But what’s in trend today is something that I have done nine years back – to be a spy. It’s not really trendy enough because I have already done it twice over.”

The actor says that “Gandhari” offers a different motivation for her character’s actions. “This becomes an altogether different drama, along with action, when you’re doing it not because you’ve been assigned a job or this is your mission, but because it’s something extremely personal,” Pannu said. “It’s very emotion-driven and not goal-driven.”

Dhillon, who is both writing and producing the film, reveals that the concept for “Gandhari” was born from her personal experience of motherhood. “The seeds of ‘Gandhari’ happened actually when I just delivered a baby,” she said. “Suddenly I felt that there is, literally, a before and after of an existence, in the sense that the fear that came with becoming a mother was so intense.”

The film’s title refers to Gandhari, a character from the ancient Indian epic “Mahabharata,” who is known for voluntarily blindfolding herself for life after marrying a blind prince. Dhillon says that the film goes beyond the well-known aspects of Gandhari’s story. “All of us are aware of the broad story of Gandhari, that she decided she was not going to look at the world or see the world because her husband cannot see. I wanted to interpret it a little differently for this one,” Dhillon says.

The film is set to be directed by Devashish Makhija — whose credits include the hard-hitting “Joram,” “Ajji” and “Bhonsle” — a choice that excites both Pannu and Dhillon. “The tension that this director creates, it’s palpable,” Dhillon said. “It can shock you. It moves you at the same time. With this sort of a story, with this emotional graph, we couldn’t have found a better director than Dev.”

“His excitement about the script is so contagious… and the kind of inputs that he had, the kind of research, or the special nuances that he brought to the story, I’m just so glad that we have someone who is equally excited like us to do this film,” Pannu said.

As for Pannu’s preparation for the physically demanding role, the actor reveals she’s been maintaining a fitness regime for years in anticipation of such a project. “I have been in a fitness regime for years, hoping that there’ll be one script that has come my way for which I don’t have to turn my world upside down suddenly, abruptly,” she said.

“Gandhari” marks the sixth instance of Pannu and Dhillon’s fruitful partnership that commenced with Anurag Kashyap’s Toronto-bowing “Manmarziyaan” (2018); Netflix original film “Haseen Dillruba” (2021) and its sequel “Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba” (2024); ZEE5 Global film “Rashmi Rocket” (2021); and Rajkumar Hirani-directed hit “Dunki” (2023), headlined by Shah Rukh Khan.

“The stakes are getting higher, from the kind of stories to the characters to the scale of the film that we are collaborating on,” Pannu said.

Production on “Gandhari” is scheduled to begin in November.