EXCLUSIVE: Kanika Dhillon reveals why Gandhari connected across 58 countries: “The mother’s bond is very, very universal”
What makes a deeply rooted Indian story travel across borders? For Kanika Dhillon, the answer lies in finding an emotion that does not need translation. Gandhari, starring Taapsee Pannu, has emerged as a global success, reaching audiences across 58 countries and topping Netflix’s Non-English Movies chart.
According to Dhillon, the film’s strongest bridge to international audiences is its most basic and deeply human emotion, a mother fighting to save her child. “I feel, firstly, the quintessential and very classic and very, very strong motherly emotion of mother looking for a child, mother trying to save her child, mother wanting to get her child back,” Dhillon tells Bollywood Hungama exclusively. For her, that emotional core allowed the story to travel without compromising its Indian identity. “That’s a universal emotion that cuts across languages and barriers and the mother’s bond is very, very universal,” she says.
But Dhillon believes Gandhari’s international appeal comes from the combination of that universal emotion with a world that remains firmly rooted in Indian culture.
The film draws upon mythology, traditional storytelling, the world of behrupiyas and the cultural significance of Chomukhi Devi. Rather than dilute these elements for an international audience, Dhillon chose to make them an integral part of the narrative. “There are elements that are very, very rooted to Indian culture, Indian ethos, Indian soul,” she explains.
And that, according to the writer-producer, is precisely what helped Gandhari stand apart. The film does not attempt to look global by abandoning its Indian identity. Instead, it places a universal emotional conflict inside a distinctly Indian world. “On top of it is mounted, the mother’s emotions, so I feel the combination is very, very ripe for the story to travel beyond the Indian continent,” Dhillon says.
The success of Gandhari therefore offers an interesting takeaway for Indian storytelling in the streaming era. A story does not necessarily need to be stripped of its cultural identity to connect internationally. Sometimes, its strongest passport is the very identity that makes it Indian.
Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Kanika Dhillon on Gandhari’s 9.6 million Week 2 views: “There is no greater joy than discovering a new audience base”
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