Vidya Balan On Sherni Music Video And Choosing To Do Women Centric Films: I Pick Compelling Stories And Characters That Inspire.
Vidya Balan is all set to roar this Friday, as her film Sherni releases on Amazon Prime Video on June 18. The film is about a forest officer, played by Vidya, who must catch a rogue tigress that is seemingly attacking villagers. While she tries to resolve this man-animal conflict, she must do so while navigating the social barriers set up by a patriarchal society in the path of most working women, both in her personal life and her professional life. The film, directed by Amit V. Masurkar (of Newton fame) also stars Sharad Saxena, Neeraj Kabi, Ila Arun, Brijendra Kalra, and Mukul Chaddha, and thus promises to be an intriguing and hopefully empowering watch. In time for the film’s release, the makers dropped a music video called ‘Main Sherni’, made especially for all the fierce women that are inspirations in themselves. The song is sung by AKASA and Raftaar, with lyrics by Raghav and music by Utkarsh Dhotekar.
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The ‘Main Sherni’ music video was released with a virtual event hosted by Instagram personality and content creator Leeza Mangaldas, who is an inspiration herself, with her videos on sex education (which India desperately needs!) and taboo subjects like female pleasure. After an initial chat with the singers, AKASA and rapper Raftaar, she went on to moderate a panel where Vidya Balan introduced five IRL Shernis that she found inspiring: Mira Erda (F4 racer and driver coach), Natasha Noel (body positivity influencer and Yoga trainer), Eshna Kutty (social media influencer and hula-hoop dancer) and Trinetra Haldar (first transgender doctor in Karnataka).
These women also feature in all their fierce glory in the ‘Main Sherni’ music video, which is quite an empowering anthem that asks women to look fear in the eye and roar at it like the tigress they are!
Also Read: 5 Thoughts We Had While Watching ‘Sherni’ Trailer: Vidya Balan Roars Per Usual But Why Is Everything Else So Vague?
These Shernis then went on to share their own stories of empowerment, about the obstacles the faced, the trauma that they’ve lived through, and how the picked themselves up, with help from their support systems, and empowered themselves to never back down. When asked who were the Sherni in their lives, most of them agreed it was their mother, and we aren’t surprised!
With Sherni, Vidya Balan adds another powerful character and a female-driven film to her filmography, which boasts of movies like Shakuntala Devi, Tumhari Sulu, Begum Jaan, Kahani, The Dirty Picture and even the short film Natkhat, which she also produced. It is a fact that women-centric films are finally getting their dues and more and more stories that portray real women are being produced and loved both by the audience and the critics. But Vidya Balan was asked if for her, it was a conscious decision to pick women-centric films, to which she said, “There’s no attempt to do women-centric films. I pick up stories that I find compelling and irresistible. And that’s also true for the characters I choose. It’s more about them being inspiring. If they happen to inspire along the way, that’s really a bonus, an icing on the cake.”
Vidya was also asked about how this pandemic has been a tough one for all of us, particularly women, and if there was anything that upset her and made her inner sherni roar in anger. And Vidya Balan had the most zen answer to it. Turns out, she doesn’t read any comments on her social media and keeps all that negativity at bay! It’s just like Tywin Lannister said on Game Of Thrones—A lion does not concern himself with the opinion of sheep! Well, neither does the tigress!
Sherni will roar on Amazon Prime Video on June 18, 2021.
Vidya Balan Didn’t Take Her Husband’s Name And Was Questioned About It. That’s Patriarchy!
