At a FICCI Frames session, panelists including Anant Singh, Tanya Bami, Amogh Dusad, Mukesh Chhabra, Rasika Dugal and Amol Parashar made the case that “rooted” is no longer a euphemism for narrow. The conversation, moderated by Naman Ramachandran, argued that stories tied to specific communities, cultures and lived experiences are finding larger audiences because they are specific, not despite it.
The panel’s case for authenticity
Producer Anant Singh framed the shift as a search for material that mirrors real life. The point, he said, is to tell stories that aren’t being told and are “not filmy.” For him, authenticity is not a garnish; it is the material itself.
Actor Amol Parashar took the argument to performance. Physique can be built, he suggested, but meaningful characters demand emotional preparation and commitment. He drew a line between looking like Hrithik Roshan and the work of making a character believable.
Rasika Dugal pointed to her own filmography — “Manto,” “Delhi Crime” and “Mirzapur” — as evidence that unconventional choices carry rewards. “The rewards are there to see,” she said, while acknowledging that such choices are not always easy. Casting director Mukesh Chhabra said the growing appetite for authentic stories has created room for new actors, and described his filter as finding “real talent, good actors who can really act.”
Specific worlds, universal entry points
The panel pushed back on the shorthand that rooted storytelling means a small-town setting or a regional dialect. What matters, they argued, is whether the world feels genuine and whether its emotions connect. Mrinalini Jain added that subtitles and dubbing have widened the entry points: stories can remain rooted in their culture while the emotion travels.
Parashar offered a home-viewing example: his mother’s interest in Korean shows. The settings are distant, but the emotional pull is immediate—“they connect with the emotion and transport you to another world.”
What this means for the next slate
The session’s practical takeaway was a list of worlds that remain underexplored in Hindi cinema and could benefit from the same treatment:
- Family businesses and their succession dramas
- Corporate boardrooms
- Children’s stories
- Women in comedy
- The lives of entrepreneurs
For our readers, this is a signal to track. If the panel’s consensus holds, the next mainstream successes may not be the most familiar settings; they will be the most specific worlds with clearly drawn emotional stakes. That is a useful test for any forthcoming project: does the world feel authentic, and do the emotions connect before the plot does?
Source: The Times of India
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