Tushar Hiranandani and his producer-wife Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani are on cloud nine. Their film Srikanth (2024) recently won the Best Hindi Feature Film award at the 72nd National Film Awards. And now, the duo is already working on their next venture, which, like their previous films – Saand Ki Aankh (2019), Srikanth and Ata Thambaycha Naay (2025) – is also based on an inspiring real-life story.
Tushar Hiranandani exclusively told Bollywood Hungama, “My next film is about the first female batch of the Indian Army.”
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani explained, “Our film is called Ragda 25. It is about 25 inexperienced girls who had a dream of joining the Army. It was an experimental batch. If these 25 women had failed, the Army would have closed its doors to women forever. So, it was imperative that they passed. In fact, even if one girl had failed, women might not have been allowed into the Army.”
She continued, “There was no benchmark because until then, only men had been trained. So, the Army officials were also setting standards for female Army officers while training these girls. They realized that the girls did some things better than the boys, and vice versa. Hence, the rules were being finalized as they went along.”
Tushar Hiranandani revealed, “We have taken the life rights from one of the students, Anjana Bhaduria, who came first in the batch. As per the rules, we submitted the script to the Army and they have approved it. The casting is almost complete. We are just waiting to lock one major role. The film will be shot entirely at one location in Chennai.”
Nidhi Parmar Hiranandani stated, “As soon as we lock our cast, we are ready to go. It’s a stunning script. It’s my passion project (smiles).”
She further said, “As makers, you have to keep evolving. If you keep doing the same thing, it becomes repetitive and beyond a certain point, you won’t have anything new to offer. We also have two biopics in the pipeline, after which we should be done with biopics! We are developing a few other scripts as well.”
Nidhi signed off by saying, “I definitely want to go commercial, but at the same time, I also want to keep our DNA intact.”
Also Read: 72nd National Film Awards: Alaya F, Tushar Hiranandani and producer Nidhi Parmar react as Srikanth wins Best Hindi Feature Film
