Prime Video, India’s most loved entertainment destination, unveiled an exclusive first look of their series Daldal at a special showcase at the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) today.
The fictional series captivated audiences with its gripping portrayal of Mumbai’s newly appointed DCP Rita Ferreira, whose pursuit of a cold-blooded killer drags her deep into the city’s moral grey zones and forces her to confront the ghosts of her past. Based on Vish Dhamija’s bestselling book Bhendi Bazaar, Daldal, an Abundantia Entertainment production, is created for a series by Suresh Triveni, and produced by Vikram Malhotra and Triveni. Directed by Amrit Raj Gupta, and written by Triveni alongside Sreekanth Agneeaswaran, Rohan D’Souza, and Priya Saggi, the psychological crime thriller features Bhumi Satish Pednekkar, Aditya Rawal and Samara Tijori in leading roles and will premiere soon on Prime Video in India and across 240+ countries and territories.
The exclusive in-room teaser preview was followed by an insightful fireside chat, titled “Beyond the Stereotype: Redefining Women and Power in Modern Storytelling.” The session brought together series’ lead, Bhumi Satish Pednekkar and Nikhil Madhok, Director & Head of Originals, Prime Video India, along with the creative forces behind Daldal, who broke down the psychological depth of the series and how it’s breaking stereotypes in its portrayal of female characters. The discussion touched upon how Daldal deliberately steps away from familiar tropes around female cops and instead, builds a layered portrait of a woman who is strong, conflicted, empathetic, and driven by a complicated sense of purpose.
Nikhil Madhok, Director & Head of Originals, Prime Video India, spoke at the session, detailing the brand’s approach and vision for women-focused storytelling: “At Prime Video, our approach to female-driven storytelling is completely intentional. For decades, more than 90% of mainstream cinema has centered on the male hero and the male gaze, while even television (despite focusing on women) kept their narratives confined to domestic spaces. Streaming gave us the opportunity to break that pattern and create women who have agency, depth, flaws, and arcs that reflect real life. You can see this across our slate: Daldal, Dahaad, Call Me Bae, Made in Heaven, Four More Shots Please, Suzhal, and so many others across languages, where women aren’t symbolic; they’re fully realized, complex characters.” He added, “It’s not just about telling women’s stories; it’s about ensuring women are part of the decision-making at every stage, from conception and writing to production and execution. This is a conscious, sustained effort, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Audiences haven’t turned away from female-led narratives; they’ve embraced them.”
Actor Bhumi Satish Pednekkar, who plays DCP Rita Ferreira in the series, said, “From the women in my home, I learned that power doesn’t need to be loud. It can be quiet, resilient, and rooted in constantly questioning the world around you. That’s something I saw my mother do every day, and something Rita does too. She doesn’t say much, but she does a lot. If actions speak louder than words, I don’t think there’s a character who embodies that more than Rita Ferreira. For the first time, I didn’t have dialogues or even expressive eyes to rely on. I had to communicate through the smallest physical cues: how her neck tightens with guilt or how her body responds to anger. It was one of the toughest roles I’ve ever prepared for, and it took months to come out of it. But it was also deeply satisfying because I was pushed, really pushed, by a team that believed in complexity, in darkness, in writing anti-hero traits for women. Very few characters like this get written for us.”
Vikram Malhotra, Founder & CEO of Abundantia Entertainment and Producer of Daldal, spoke of Abundantia Entertainment creating and backing powerful female characters with films and series like Shakuntala Devi, Jalsa, Sherni, Hush Hush and now Daldal: “At Abundantia, it’s always about the story, followed by the gaze of the storyteller. I’ve always believed that the moment you start boxing narratives as female-led or male-led, you’ve already defeated the purpose. Stories must connect universally, cutting across genders, for them to truly find their audience. While creating powerful female characters, it’s all about balance. No one is entirely good or entirely bad. My issue with the historical portrayal of women in our cinema is that it always chooses a side. That’s the thing we do differently at Abundantia: we embrace human portrayals, complexities, nuance, and emotional truth.”
When this show first came to me, I had the same hesitation as many others: another crime story, another set of familiar tropes. There are patterns you expect in the genre, and you almost assume you’ll fall into them. But what we attempted with Daldal was very different,” said Producer and Creator Suresh Triveni. “It’s not just a good versus bad narrative, and it’s definitely not only about discovering who the killer is. We wanted to go beyond that. We were interested in where it all originates. Because the truth is, there is good and bad in everyone; there’s rage in all of us. And that’s the space the show tries to explore. Instead of limiting ourselves to a whodunnit, we wanted to ask the deeper question: why do people do what they do?”
Director Amrit Raj Gupta spoke about working on the crime thriller, adding, “When I first read the script, I didn’t fully understand why Rita is the way she is: her traumas, her past, and how all of that forms her present. Once I understood that, the process became clearer. And of course, when you have an actor like Bhumi who is so collaborative, intuitive, and generous, it becomes a joy. With the support of the producer and creator, things gradually fell into place. One thing we constantly reminded ourselves was this: because these characters are so complex, less is more. We didn’t want to overplay anything. We wanted to see them simply as humans: vulnerable, flawed, layered. We didn’t want to take sides. We wanted to observe and let the audience decide their own point of view.”
Daldal will premiere soon exclusively on Prime Video in India and across 240+ countries and territories worldwide.
