Karan D Kapadia & Nitya Mehra on Aneet Padda's Hunkkaar Journey: 'She's Not Our Nepo Baby'

Indian filmmakers Karan D Kapadia and Nitya Mehra have spoken out about their collaboration with Aneet Padda on the upcoming JioHotstar series Hunkkaar. This is set to release on September 25. The duo has been working with Aneet since her Bollywood breakthrough in Saiyaara.

And they have seen her grow as an actor over the years.

noting that we had done a short film with her when she was out of school. Then Big Girls Don't Cry, and this was the next project Nitya tells us. "We, as filmmakers, and she, as a film child, were growing together.

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She is a chameleon. That's why Hunkkaar is so interesting, to see Aneet's journey on it. She had that childlike quality needed for the character to be the face of the fight."

According to Karan, the character was specifically designed with Aneet in mind, despite the actress auditioning alongside numerous other candidates for the role. The breakthrough series Big Girls Don't Cry marked a turning point, cementing Aneet's association with the part. When the character was conceptualized, Karan recalls, the team envisioned a complex individual capable of conveying vulnerability and resilience.

Through Aneet's portrayal, Karan aimed to capture the nuances of a person who could navigate the aftermath of trauma with maturity, speaking truth to power and refusing to be silenced.

"Karan was in depression! He was like, ‘How can the world think I have a 20- or 21-year-old daughter?!’ So he was going through his crisis on that." Nitya chimes in, tongue firmly in cheek.

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First of all, I'm damn young, so it's impossible I could be her biological parent," Karan laughs, recalling the episode. "We try to bring people down and take credit away: 'Oh.

She's a nepo baby, she's got backing.' For Nitya and me, it's very important to state that anyone standing where they are today is there on the merit of their hard work. No one can take that away.

The series, which focuses on a schoolgirl's allegation of sexual harassment against a revered self-proclaimed godman and the investigation into it, will release on JioHotstar on September 25. Hunkkaar: The Roar also stars Fatima Sana Shaikh, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub, Raghubir Yadav, and Zoya Hussain.