Having previously appeared in films such as Baaghi 2 and Aap Jaisa Koi , as well as the series City of Dreams 2, Shriyam now finds herself at the centre of a women-led sports biopic. Actor Shriyam Bhagnani took on one of the biggest challenges of her career with Sumo Didi , which marks her first film in a leading role. The film follows the story of Hetal Dave, India’s first female sumo wrestler, and required Shriyam to undergo an intense physical transformation to portray her on screen.
On the film’s long wait for release
The film premiered at international film festivals, including the Tokyo International Film Festival, before releasing on ZEE5 on October 23, 2026. Shriyam siad, “I had also gained and lost weight for other projects. Because of that, when we were travelling to different places, I could see people behaving very differently with me. Because it usually takes that time for a film to be completed, so you are prepared, for the first couple of years, it wasn’t so difficult. Because of her unconventional career choice but remains determined to prove herself, coming from a conservative Marwari family, Hetal faces resistance and criticism.
In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Shriyam spoke about the nine months of training that went into preparing for the role, the challenges of playing a real-life person and the responsibility of carrying a women-led film. She also opened up about the film’s long journey to its release and how her experiences in the industry have shaped her career choices. For Shriyam, getting her first leading role in a women-led film was a big opportunity. However, the fact that it was a biopic about a real person brought with it a different kind of responsibility. She explained, “Getting a lead film is one thing, and getting a biopic, to play a real-life person, is another thing. And that too, someone who is alive and very similar to your age, so the comparison can happen very easily. So the pressure wasn’t that I was leading a film; it was that her story is so powerful and unique that it needed to be done justice. Taking on the role also meant making significant changes to her physical appearance. She recalled having undergone physical transformations for other projects and how her perspective changed after seeing people’s reactions to her new appearance. Growing up, I watched actors like Aamir Khan and Johnny Depp, and I felt it was a normal process for an actor to go through this physical transformation. But once you mature, you realise that there are people who would probably not perceive you well when you are a different body type or weight. That comes in much later, and it happened after I gained the weight and the shoot had begun. She also kept herself busy with other projects and explored a different professional avenue during those years. And in the second year, it also went to film festivals, so it felt like a good thing. Things kept happening with the film. I also did another project with Netflix, and I kept working throughout the time and started an entirely different profession as an angel investor in these four years. Directed by Jayant Rohatgi, Sumo Didi stars Shriyam Bhagnani as Hetal, who challenges societal expectations and body-shaming to pursue her dream of making a name for herself in sumo wrestling. The film follows her journey as she trains in the sport and travels to Japan to pursue her ambitions. It also stars Chaitanya Sharma, Anubha Fatehpura, Nitesh Pandey and Raghav Dhir.
There are so many sports films that have been made, but this sport is so different, and the story is so different that it needed to be told in a certain way. However, Shriyam said she was not worried about being stereotyped for taking up such a role early in her career. Shriyam said the wait was not entirely difficult, as it continued to find opportunities at film festivals While the film took time to reach audiences. Shriyam said, “It was difficult.
