''Rashmi Rocket'' is a 2021 Indian

Hindi language Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has bee ...

sports drama A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the spo ...

film directed by

Akarsh Khurana Akarsh Khurana is an Indian director, writer and actor, son of actor Akash Khurana, who is critically acclaimed for writing and directing various shows. His notable works are TVF Tripling (as a writer), Yeh Meri Family (actor), Mismatched (a ...

and produced by

Ronnie Screwvala Rohinton Soli "Ronnie" Screwvala (born 8 September 1956) is an Indian entrepreneur. He has been named on Esquire's List of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century and ranked 78 among the 100 most influential people in the world on ...

. It stars

Taapsee Pannu Taapsee Pannu (born 1 August 1987) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. She is the recipient of three Filmfare Awards. After a brief modelling career, Pannu ventured into acting with the Telugu film '' ...

as the

titular character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

alongside Abhishek Banerjee and

Priyanshu Painyuli Priyanshu Painyuli is an Indian actor and model who appears in Bollywood films. In 2020, he appeared in Netflix original '' Extraction'', an American action-thriller film and '' Mirzapur 2'', an Amazon Prime Video action crime thriller series. ...

. The film premiered on 15 October 2021 on

ZEE5 ZEE5 is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on Web, Andr ...

Cast

as Rashmi Chibber aka Rashmi Rocket, an Indian

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete from

Bhuj Bhuj () is a Municipality and District Headquarters of Kutch District in the state of Gujarat, India. Etymology According to legend, Kutch was ruled by the Nāga chieftains in the past. Sagai, a queen of Sheshapattana, who was married to Kin ...

in Kutch, Gujarat. Competitor at the

Indian National Open Athletics Championships The Indian National Open Athletics Championships ( hi, ओपन नेशनल एथलेटिक चैम्पियनशिप) is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Athletics Federation of India, which serv ...

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games ( ko, 2014년 아시아 경기대회/2014년 아시안 게임, Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the 17th Asian Games ( ko, 제17회 아시아 경기대회/제17회 ...

and the

2016 South Asian Games The 2016 South Asian Games, officially the XII South Asian Games, is a major multi-sport event which took place from 5 February to 16 February 2016 in Guwahati and Shillong, India. A total of 2,672 athletes competed in 226 events over 22 sports ...

qualifiers. The character is based on several Indian sportswomen who were subject to gender testing due to being diagnosed with

hyperandrogenism Hyperandrogenism is a medical condition characterized by high levels of androgens. It is more common in women than men. Symptoms of hyperandrogenism may include acne, seborrhea (inflamed skin), hair loss on the scalp, increased body or facial ...

; such as

Dutee Chand Dutee Chand (born 3 February 1996) is an Indian professional sprinter and current national champion in the women's 100 metres event. She is the first Indian to win a gold medal in 100m race in a global competition. She is the third Indian woman ...

and

Pinki Pramanik Pinki Pramanik (born 10 April 1986 in Purulia) is an Indian track and field athlete who specialises in the 400 metres and 800 metres. Pramanik had success with the national 4×400 metres relay team, winning silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Ga ...

. *

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Gagan Thakur,

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four ...

captain (later Major) and Rashmi's husband * Abhishek Banerjee as Eeshit Mehta, Rashmi's lawyer *

Shweta Tripathi Shweta Tripathi Sharma (born 6 July 1985) is an Indian actress popularly known for the character of Golu Gupta in Mirzapur. She began her film career as a production assistant and associate director and gained wider recognition and accolades f ...

as Maya Bhasin *

Supriya Pathak Supriya Pathak (born 7 January 1961) is an Indian actress who works in Gujarati and Hindi films and television. She has received multiple awards including three Filmfare Awards for Best Supporting Actress. She is mostly popular for playing th ...

as Bhanuben Chibber, Rashmi's mother * Manoj Joshi as Ramnik Chibber, Rashmi's father, killed in the

2001 Bhuj earthquake The 2001 Gujarat earthquake, also known as the Bhuj earthquake, occurred on 26 January, India's 52nd Republic Day, at . The epicentre was about 9 km south-southwest of the village of Chobari in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District of Guj ...

Mantra A mantra ( Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ...

as Coach Tejas Mukherji * Supriya Pilgaonkar as Judge Savita Deshpande, judge at the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ...

* Miloni Jhonsa as Niharika Chopra, Dilip's daughter who's jealous of Rashmi *

Namita Dubey Namita Dubey is an indian actress known for her work in Sony TV's ''Bade Bhaiyya Ki Dulhania'' and Pooja Hooda in Colors TV Colors TV is an Indian general entertainment broadcast network owned by Viacom18. The network's programming consis ...

as Priyanka Kapoor * Varun Badola as Dilip Chopra, Niharika's father and a Senior Selector * Boloram Das as Coach * Chirag Vora as Nileshbhai Virah Chibber * Dharak Chhaya as Kartik Virah Chibber * Dhwanish Chhaya as Paresh Virah Chibber *

Akash Khurana Akash Khurana is an Indian actor, screenwriter, theatre artist and entrepreneur. His first screen appearance was in Shyam Benegal's '' Kalyug''. He has appeared in nearly 60 films, including ''Ardh Satya'', ''Saaransh'', ''Naam'', ''Beta'', ' ...

as Dr. Ejaz Qureshi * Kshitee Jog as Dr. Jagdish Mahatre * Zafar Karachiwala as Mangesh Desai * Aseem Jayadev Hattangady as Praveen Sood * Umesh Jagtap as Inspector Jagan Sathe * Akshay Taksale as Sub-Inspector Jagtap Rana * Kritika Bharadwaj as Vaidehi Thakur

Production

The

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began in November 2020 at FLAME University in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

. The film was wrapped up on 26 January 2021 in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the nin ...

. Shooting locations included

and the

Rann of Kutch The Rann of Kutch (alternately spelled as Kuchchh) is a large area of salt marshes that span the border between India and Pakistan. It is located in Gujarat (primarily the Kutch district), India, and in Sindh, Pakistan. It is divided into t ...

in Gujarat as well as

Ranchi Ranchi (, ) is the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...

in Jharkhand.

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by

Amit Trivedi Amit Trivedi (born 8 April 1979) is an Indian music director, singer and a lyricist who works primarily in Hindi films. After working as a theatre and jingle composer and composing for non-film albums, he debuted as a film composer in the 2008 ...

while lyrics written by

Kausar Munir Kausar Munir is an Indian lyricist and screen writer in Bollywood. Biography Munir was born and brought up in Bandra, Mumbai. She graduated in English Literature from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Munir married actor Nirmal Pandey in 1997 bu ...

Critical reception

Anna M. M. Vetticad of

Firstpost ''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18. The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Ra ...

said “Here for a change is a Hindi film that knows how to portray male allies without allowing them to cross the line into male saviour territory. Here for a change is a Hindi film featuring female adversaries sans the all-women-are-enemies-of-women stereotype, and spotting female allies in unexpected places.” Writing for

Scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyrus ...

, Nandini Ramnath said, “Light on its feet and often as fleet as Rashmi, the movie cruises along on the strength of several heart-warming scenes (many of them involving Rashmi’s tough-loving mother Bhanu), a foot-tapping folksy score by

, and basic insights into the debate over hyperandrogenism that continues to rage in all manner of sport.” Ronak Kotecha of

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...

gave the film four stars and said, “ Nanda Periyasamy’s riveting story, Aniruddha Guha’s sharp screenplay and

’s able direction, holds your attention right from the beginning until the end, where the race for justice is played out in a court.” About lead actor

, the publication said, “Taapsee Pannu once again proves her mettle, embodying Rashmi’s persona, physically and mentally. Her effort to celebrate Rashmi’s victory and endure her pain, is as real as it gets and the actress doesn’t miss the beat when it comes to making us root for her character.” Shubhra Gupta, in her review of the film in

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split b ...

, wrote: "When you see Taapsee Pannu’s Rashmi fighting the good fight, for herself and for other athletes who have been done against in similar fashion, you want to cheer. For keeping sporting women on top, and for the very worthy cause." In his review for

Cinema Express ''Cinema Express'' was an Indian Tamil-language entertainment fortnightly magazine published from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was a part of The New Indian Express Group, which also publishes ''Samakalika Malayalam Vaarika'' weekly as well as '' ...

, critic Avinash Ramachandran wrote: "It is brave of Taapsee to do a film where the battle against the system takes paramount importance, and rightly so."

Zee News Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation. The channel has been involved in several controversies and ...

said in its review that "Akarsh Khurana's Rashmi Rocket has an unconventional storyline that can greatly contribute to conversations around gender equality." In her review for

Mashable Mashable is a digital media platform, news website and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2005. Early iterations of the site were ...

, Sushri Saha writes, "With strong performances led by Pannu and a well-written screenplay, the film does justice to the issues it raises and challenges." Critic Shomini Sen, in her review for

WION WION (World is One News) is an Indian multinational English language news channel headquartered in New Delhi. It is owned by the Essel Group and is part of the Zee Media network of channels. The channel covers global news and current affairs. ...

ews, wrote that Rashmi Rocket “is an important film. It treads on an unknown track and it shines because of its important message.”

Accolades

References

External links

* *
Rashmi Rocket
' at

Rashmi Rocket
at

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is a Bollywood entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provide ...

2020s Hindi-language films Indian sports drama films Indian LGBT-related films Indian courtroom films Fictional track and field athletes Films about social issues in India Films about sportspeople Films about women in India Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films not released in theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 drama films Films shot in Maharashtra Films shot in Gujarat Films shot in Jharkhand Films set in Gujarat Films set in Jharkhand Films set in Maharashtra Films set in Mumbai Films set in 2001 Films set in 2014 Indian Army in films Indian National Open Athletics Championships 2014 Asian Games 2016 South Asian Games Films directed by Akarsh Khurana {{India-film-stub