This ‘Sherni’ of Bollywood, Vidya Balan, says we can’t choose between development and environment

Sheetal

Vidya Balan, who embodies the spirit of a tigress, takes another leap with an exciting message-oriented film, Sherni, making her intention to break the stereotypes crystal clear.

Releasing on June 18 on Amazon Prime Video, it’s yet another outing after Shakuntala Devi, which was well-received by critics as well the audience.

Saying that her character in Sherni is a woman of few words but strong will and resilience, Vidya feels excited as well as nervous as the D-day is closing in.

After giving commercial and critical successes like The Dirty Picture, Kahaani, Mission Mangal and Shakunatala Devi, she says, “I have never said my movies are message-driven as the purpose of a movie is to entertain the audience. But Sherni is a project which does carry a special message. We all need to think about forests. We cannot choose between development and environment. The idea is to co-exist and we have to make efforts on our own.”

Directed by Amit Masurkar of Newton fame, Sherni boasts of an ensemble cast, including Sharad Saxena, Mukul Chaddha, Vijay Raaz, Ila Arun, Brijendra Kala and Neeraj Kabi.

Prepping for the role, it was a memorable experience for Vidya when she was introduced to female forest officers from Madhya Pradesh. She adds, “They have been very patient and answered all my queries related to their job, the challenges they face and the passion they share for conservation. In fact, they were kind enough to share reading materials as well as documentary links which helped me prep for my role.”

And has the jungle changed her? “It has made me more comfortable in my mind. I had gone to jungle safaris before and it is not the big wild animals but the creepy crawlies that I was afraid of. But living and shooting in the jungle has helped me get rid of my fears.”

Inspiring words

Wearing a tiger print dress for the launch of the song Main Sherni on Tuesday, Vidya says her favourite line from the song is ‘Musibat ko aisa panja marenge’. Sung by Akasa, the rap part in the song has Raftaar’s voice. Raftaar says, “To everyone who will listen to my song, my message is to keep on fighting and continue to inspire.”

It was Vidya who shared this touching story with the Shakunatala Devi producer Vikram Malhotra, who immediately jumped on board. She says, “More than vision, it takes a little madness to bring a purpose-driven story for the audience. I am glad Vikram and everyone who is associated with Sherni were equally mad about this story to take it forward.”

Vikram adds, “Nature is the best teacher. Shooting in real locations, the problems and complication we face were also nature-driven, unpredicted. And while we had shot some of it before the pandemic, we couldn’t wait longer to bring it to the audience. We are thankful to the MP Tourism Board to help us shoot in the real jungles. Some of the people featured in movie are real forest officers. No VFX or artificial set would have justified our story about man-animal conflict.”

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