Meghna Gulzar on 'Daayra': Two cops, one grey zone, and a story that dismantles binaries

Filmmaker Meghna Gulzar has shared a personal note about her upcoming film 'Daayra', dedicating it to lead actors Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran. In an Instagram post, she described how the project took her to unfamiliar creative and geographical spaces, despite having lived in Mumbai her entire life and travelled widely across India.

Gulzar, known for films like 'Talvar', 'Raazi', 'Chhapaak', and 'Sam Bahadur', said her earlier work explored the spectrum of grey in human lives. With 'Daayra', she said the film goes further — it invades that grey and attempts to dismantle it. She described the film as being fundamentally about duality, a theme embodied by its two central characters.

Kareena Kapoor Khan plays DCP Ajooni Kohli, while Prithviraj Sukumaran portrays DCP Raman Kumar. Gulzar called the casting a dream come true, bringing together two prolific actors from the Hindi and Malayalam film industries to face off on screen. She described Ajooni as fiercely righteous and Raman as righteously fierce, noting that both are law enforcement officers who often find themselves on opposite sides of a delicate line.

"They are both swirling in a sea of grey," Gulzar wrote, adding that the characters are neither black nor white, and that the law sometimes guides them and sometimes entraps them. The film, she said, is inspired by several true events from across India, and is set in a world that could exist almost anywhere in the country.

Kareena Kapoor Khan also shared her thoughts on Instagram, saying the film made her sit with uncomfortable ideas. She praised Gulzar for not telling audiences what to think, instead taking them into the grey and into two people who challenge and reflect each other.

Written by Yash Keswani, Sima Agarwal, and Meghna Gulzar, 'Daayra' is produced by Junglee Pictures and Pen Studios. The trailer is set to be unveiled on August 31, and the film will release in theatres on September 18.