Rani Mukerji to feature as a cop in ‘Mardaani’.
By Tathagata Mitra
BANGALORE: Rani Mukerji’s next project, which will also mark the comeback of the 36-year-old actress, is a film on human trafficking called Mardaani. The film will be directed by Pradeep Sarkar who had earlier directed Mukerji in Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, and produced under the YRF banner with Mukerji’s newly wed husband, Aditya Chopra taking charge of the project.
According to sources, Mukerji is to play the role of a tough cop in a Mumbai Crime Branch unit named Shivani Shivaji Roy who takes on the Mumbai mafia after a girl is kidnapped and smuggled outside the city. The role of Roy’s love interest is being played by Jisshu Sengupta, a prominent Bengali actor who had played a small role in the biopic Bose: The Forgotten Hero.
Mukerji, who has grown into the habit of doing one film of her choice every once in a while, has experience playing a tough woman on screen. Her abuse hurling avatar in No One Killed Jessica was very well received by the moviegoers.
Nagesh Kukunoor’s Lakshmi which won the Mercedes Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative at the Palm Springs International Film Festivalthis year, also focused on human trafficking and child prostitution. The film is the story of Lakshmi who is kidnapped and thrown into child prostitution. However, in this story, there is no beat cop to come rescue her. The film’s release in India got delayed due to censorship issues.
Anurag Kashyap will be seen in a film called Traffic, which according to sources, will feature five short films each focusing on various aspects of human trafficking. Each film is said to be 30 minutes long and will tell the real life stories of five people who went through the horror of human trafficking.
Mardaani releases in theaters on August 22.