'Dangal' heroine to feature in a woman-oriented Tamil remake

Having begun her career as a child artiste in 1997, 29-year-old Fatima Sana Shaikh hit big time with her 2016 release 'Dangal'. A Hyderabadi by birth, she has a mixed religious background, with her father being a Hindu and her mother a Muslim. Yet, five years after her film with Aamir Khan, she has not made a great impact, only being seen on OTT platforms in the last one year. Of course, her career was not on the fast lane even before that as the ambitious 'Thugs of Hindostan', laden with a heavy duty star cast like Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan and released in 2018 flopped badly leaving her career in tatters.

With her onscreen image still having a relatively better recall value, the forthcoming film of hers, being produced by the corporate outfit Applause Entertainment seems promising. A reprisal of the 2017 critically acclaimed film 'Aruvi' (Stream), Shaikh is to be seen in a woman- centric role which battles misogyny in an intensely patriarchal setting. As a report in Mid-Day states: 'While the original featuring Aditi Balan was helmed by ArunPrabhuPurushothaman, the directorial baton has been handed to EshwarNivas for the remake backed by Applause Entertainment and Viki Rajani's Faith Films'.

Further, the daily adds: The Tamil film, widely praised on its release, reflected on the misogynistic ways of society through the journey of the protagonist who is disowned by her family and tries to build a life anew in Chennai. If the satire shone because of its script, it was also elevated by Balan's brave performance as a woman whose rage against society finds an unlikely outlet on a reality show. Shaikh admits she is excited and nervous in equal measure as she gears up to shoulder the movie. "I am thrilled to do the Aruvi remake, and am looking forward to diving deep into the character. I am glad that [the two studios] have come together with E Nivas to make this content."

The production team is zeroing in on the principal cast before the film goes on floors mid-2021. Producer Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment, says the movie is another attempt by the studio to bring strong feminine voices to the fore. "Equally funny and ferocious, Aruvi is a feminist social satire that stunned us when we first saw it. We were drawn in by its unconventional narrative, deftly balancing its black comedy leanings with the beats of a taut thriller," he says.

With the pandemic providing great opportunities for various genres of film-making to find its way into public consciousness, one is sure this film too can carve a niche, as content is being consumed hungrily by a wide variety of viewers across the globe today.