From Begum Jaan (2017) to Shabaash Mithu (2022), filmmaker Srijit Mukherji has a knack for bringing stories that have spirited women at their centre. Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke is no exception. The upcoming series celebrates the courage of cops by telling the story of IPS officer Kavya Iyer, essayed by Regina Cassandra. When approaching women-led stories, Mukherji says the idea is to treat them on par with men, right at the outset. He explains, “I have always avoided underlining the fact that a woman is doing all this. Underlining it is a great disservice because then, you are assuming that she is not supposed to do so. I have treated it the same way as I would have if a man was doing it. The only addition is that she is [depicted] as a single mother. So, she has an additional responsibility.”
Srijit Mukherji
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The ZEE5 series is inspired by true events, and sheds light on the complexities police officers face in fulfilling their duties. Finding the right balance between facts and fiction is key to such a project. “The first thing that we worked on is determining how much to fictionalise. Also, since it is inspired by events from across the country, we wanted to make it a pan-India show in terms of locations, and missions. We shot it in Shillong, Kerala and Jaipur.”