Janam Bhumi

BHUMI might PEDNEKAR off a kicking be year with pivotal Emergencyera her drama dacoit Sonchiriya

Writer-director Abhishek Chaubey’s offer to Bhumi Pednekar for the starring role in his film, Sonchiriya, came with a disclaimer: “There are 200 men in it and you are the only woman.”

Those men included Manoj Bajpayee, Ranvir Shorey and Ashutosh Rana. But Pednekar was attracted to the strong female character Chaubey had created—like those in his earlier films, Ishqiya, Dedh Ishqiya and Udta Punjab. “She’s got balls,” says Pednekar about her character. “The actions she takes, even though she lives in a brutal, suppressed and lawless land, are very courageous.”

Set in the Chambal made infamous in Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994), based on the life of Phoolan Devi, Sonchiriya, too, features dacoits and a social message—caste dynamics and the 1970s Emergency play a central role. The story, says Pednekar, has “quirk”.

This has been one of the most physically gruelling roles of Pednekar’s career yet. “It’s the most I have prepped for a film after Dum Laga Ke Haisha,” she says, referring to her debut film, for which she gained 27 kilos to play an over-weight woman, ignored by her husband. Her training for Sonchiriya included carrying five litres of water on her head to learn the gait of a rural woman and mastering the Bundeli dialect. The terrain presented its own challenges. “It was barren, dry and windy. I’d return to the hotel and there would be sand in my hair and dirt in my nails and ears,” she says.

Releasing on March 1, Sonchiriya could be the beginning of a pivotal year for Pednekar. She will be seen next in Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare alongside Konkana Sensharma and will soon begin shooting a horror-comedy with Vicky Kaushal. After that comes Bala, a romantic comedy with Ayushmann Khurrana, and then Karan Johar’s Takht, her first big-budget , period film. “I am lucky to have film-makers who understand that along with entertaining people, we can give our women power,” she says.