| The Sholay Girl | |
| Director: | Aditya Sarpotdar |
| Producer: | Shrabani Deodhar Sai Deodhar Shakti Anand |
| Starring: | Bidita Bag Chandan Roy Sanyal Aditya Lakhia Prince Rodde |
| Studio: | Purple Morning Movies |
| Distributor: | ZEE5 |
| Runtime: | 106 minutes |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Hindi |
The Sholay Girl is a 2019 Hindi-language biographical period drama film directed by Aditya Sarpotdar and produced by Shrabani Deodhar, Sai Deodhar and Shakti Anand.[1] Written by Faizal Akhtar and Shrabani Deodhar, the film is based on India's first stuntwoman, Reshma Pathan.[2] [3] Bidita Bag portrays Pathan's role while Chandan Roy Sanyal, Prince Rodde and Aditya Lakhia appear in supporting roles.[4]
The title refers to Sholay, in which Pathan worked as a stunt double for Hema Malini.[5] To prepare for the role, Bag took training in martial arts.[6] She also said that she watched the tonga scene from Sholay "at least a 100 times to master the role."[7] The official trailer was released on 3 March 2019 and the film was released on 8 March, the International Women's Day on the online streaming platform ZEE5.[8] [9] [10]
Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in called it "an undeniably uplifting biopic that pays tribute to Reshma’s daring and can-do spirit". But she felt that the film "softens the rough edges and underplays the exploitative conditions under which she often worked."[11] Alcheesh Kushwaha of NDTV praised Bag's performance. He then wrote: "In the one hour 25-minute film, with the colloquy, trickle and resonance of Reshma, the whole story of adventurer and Himmatwali Stantwoman explains in the sequels."[12] Arushi Jain of The Indian Express called the film a "compelling watch" and praised Bag's acting calling her "effortless in her spot on performance as Reshma."[13]