28 September,2026 08:13 AM IST | Mumbai | Priyanka Sharma
(L-R) Nidhi Parmar and Tushar Hiranandani with their National Film Awards. Pics/By Special Arrangement, Instagram
The first thing filmmaker Tushar Hiranandani did after getting down the stage of National Award ceremony was hand over her certificate for winning the best Hindi film for Srikant to producer and partner Nidhi Parmar. "She also won and got the certificate as our production house Chalk and Cheese was also a winner. And she deserved it more than me," beamed Hiranandani on the call with mid-day.
The couple reached the career milestone last week as the Rajkummar Rao-starrer was a co-production of Chalk and Cheese and T-Series. And now it's time for them to move on to a new outing, hand-in-hand. Hiranandani revealed to mid-day that Parmar and he are gearing up for an Indian Army drama titled Ragda Pachees.
Sumukhi Suresh
"Nidhi gets the stories and I go with that. So for everything we make, it's to her credit. And again, she has got me a great subject again. It's called Ragda Pachees. Nidhi has worked on it for years now. The script is ready, and we are in the process of casting," said the director over a call.
He described it as the couple's "dream" project, scripted by popular stand-up comedian and writer Sumukhi Suresh. So, what's it about? "It's about the test batch of 25 women in the Indian Army in 1992. These women were handpicked after extensive testing. The deal was that even if one fails, the army would shut its doors for women. They didn't take this responsibility very seriously in the beginning, but eventually understood its importance. It explores patriotism, gender, how the army struggled to deal with women, and the infrastructure and training they needed for them," shared Parmar.
While the women's casting is locked, the makers are scouting for an actor to play a pivotal male character in the drama. Parmar shared that the casting process has been far from easy, more so because the script has undergone changes over time.
"It has changed from a completely female-centric film to now having a pivotal male character, whose casting is left. Because the script evolved over time, the casting also took time," she said. This change, she shared, was primarily due to funding issues. "I wanted to make this as a completely female centric film, but because this is about the army, there's a certain scale to it. You are then limited by the budget. Also, I didn't know if anyone would understand that the male figure in the story is very important, but because there are women in it that are pivotal, it's difficult to make an actor understand that while there are other characters, you are also important. That's a challenge in casting for this character but if I want to make it at the scale that it demands then it does need a slightly bigger budget. But I have to mention that this male character is based on a real life character and it has added a beautiful depth to it. It was an accident that has elevated the script," she smiled.
