Even though it was shot in 2024, the JioHotstar show Hunkkaar is releasing now, two years later. But for Aneet Padda , it has transformed. In between, she had her Bollywood breakthrough with Saiyaara and became an overnight star. Hunkkaar creators Karan D Kapadia and Nitya Mehra have seen Aneet’s journey from the beginning, having worked with her on two projects before. In a conversation with Hindustan Times, the two filmmakers talk about her growth as an actor and the time she was branded a ‘nepo baby’ by the internet.
For most actors, life has progressed since then.
The show will release on JioHotstar on September 25. Aneet worked with Karan and Nitya on a short film before joining their acclaimed web series, Big Girls Don’t Cry. The filmmakers say that this created a comfort zone for them with the actor. Nitya tells us why she was chosen for Hunkkaar, “We had done a short film with her when she was out of school, then Big Girls Don’t Cry, and this was the next project. We, as filmmakers, and she, as a film child, were growing together. She is a chameleon. That’s why Hunkkaar is so interesting, to see Aneet’s journey on it. She had that childlike quality needed for the character to be the face of the fight. You needed someone who could pull off being vulnerable while having an entire nation behind her. Hunkkaar: The Roar also stars Fatima Sana Shaikh, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub, Raghubir Yadav, and Zoya Hussain. The series focuses on a schoolgirl’s allegation of sexual harassment against a revered self-proclaimed godman and the investigation into it.
And as you said about changing the narrative from victim to survivor, we never wanted to use the term victim.
