Firstpost At IFFI 2025 | Bhumi Satish Pednekkar's upcoming series 'Daldal' brings a bold and new crime narrative at the festival

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.

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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.

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.”