EXCLUSIVE: Taapsee Pannu REVEALS why Gandhari’s global success surprised her: “We thought we made a very Indian film”
When Taapsee Pannu and the team made Gandhari, they knew they were telling a deeply rooted Indian story. What they perhaps did not anticipate was just how far that story would travel. The Netflix film has emerged as the highest single-week viewed Indian Netflix Original film and reached Global No. 1, with the film also trending across more than 50 countries.
For Taapsee, the scale of the international response has been one of the biggest surprises of Gandhari’s success. “Honestly, we were very surprised because we thought we made a very Indian film, it’s a heart length film, it’s very Indian storyline, characters, world,” she said in an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Hungama.
The actor admits that the team always believed the film had an emotional quality that could connect with audiences. But the idea that it would resonate so strongly in countries culturally removed from India was something they had not anticipated. “So definitely we knew that it has a very very special heart. The heart of the film is at the right place so it will definitely connect with people,” Taapsee said.
What surprised her was the breadth of that connection. Gandhari found audiences across South America, Europe and Africa, while also making an impact in countries such as South Korea, Mexico and Canada. “But we never thought that beyond India it will connect with people where the countries which are culturally different from India,” she added.
Taapsee also pointed to the film’s chart performance in international territories as a particularly significant indicator. According to her, Gandhari reached No. 1 in several countries outside India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, territories where the presence of an Indian audience might otherwise have been expected to contribute to its performance. “And that was a very pleasant surprise that it connected with audience beyond Hindi speaking audience,” she said.
The global response has consequently given Gandhari a reach beyond its immediate cultural setting. At its heart, the film remains an intensely Indian story, but its themes of motherhood, conflict and the fight for one’s child appear to have found an emotional entry point with audiences far beyond the Hindi-speaking world.
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