Meghna Gulzar Reveals Why Daayra Draws From Multiple Cases Across India

The story behind Daayra is bigger than one crime. At the trailer launch of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran's upcoming crime thriller in Mumbai on Monday, August 31, director Meghna Gulzar addressed speculation that the film was specifically inspired by the 2019 Hyderabad rape and murder case. The filmmaker made it clear that Daayra is not a direct retelling of one particular incident, but a narrative shaped by research into several cases from across India.

Meghna was asked whether the 2019 rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor near Hyderabad had formed the basis of the film. In response, she explained that limiting the story to one case would have gone against the larger issues the film aims to explore.

“We are touching on so many delicate subjects that having just one perspective, or just the data and facts of one case, would have been very restrictive. Because the issues we are talking about happen all over the country,” Meghna said.

She further stressed that these concerns cannot be linked to one particular region. “It is not something that happens only in one state or one region. It happens everywhere, and it happens very frequently — the things we are talking about in the film,” she added.

Meghna's explanation gives an important insight into the way Daayra has been constructed. Rather than taking a high-profile crime and recreating it scene by scene, the filmmaker and her team studied multiple real-life cases and looked for similarities between them. The intention was to identify the common emotional, criminal and judicial threads that run through such incidents and build those elements into one larger story.

That approach also allows Daayra to examine the issue from a wider perspective. A film based entirely on one case would naturally remain tied to the circumstances, people and geography of that particular incident. By looking at several cases, Meghna and her team have instead attempted to explore broader questions about crime, justice, punishment and the judicial system.

At the centre of this world are two senior police officers played by Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran. Kareena portrays DCP Ajooni Kohli, while Prithviraj plays DCP Raman Kumar. The two officers are investigating the same complicated case, but their contrasting approaches to duty and justice put them on opposing sides of the debate.

The recently released trailer further establishes the film's morally complicated world. There are no straightforward answers, and the characters are forced to make decisions in circumstances where right and wrong are not always easy to separate. It is precisely this grey area that appears to be at the heart of Meghna's storytelling.

The filmmaker's decision to draw from multiple cases also adds another layer of responsibility to the project. Since the film deals with extremely sensitive subjects, Daayra has the opportunity to move beyond a single headline and examine the wider realities surrounding such crimes. The focus is not simply on what happened, but also on how people, institutions and the justice system respond afterwards.

For Kareena and Prithviraj, the film offers an opportunity to explore characters who are not merely solving a crime but confronting their own ideas about justice. Their opposing viewpoints are expected to drive much of the emotional tension, while Meghna's direction keeps the focus on the larger questions raised by the case.

Daayra marks another collaboration between Meghna Gulzar and Junglee Pictures, following Talvar and Raazi. With Pen Studios also backing the project, the film brings together a filmmaker known for tackling serious subjects and two leading performers at the centre of a story inspired by real-world events.

Ultimately, Meghna's clarification makes one thing clear: Daayra should not be viewed as a film about the Hyderabad case alone. The filmmaker has deliberately widened the canvas, drawing from several incidents to explore issues that, as she points out, extend across the country.

With Daayra arriving in cinemas on September 18, 2026, audiences will soon see how Meghna Gulzar has transformed multiple real-life threads into one layered crime thriller — one that looks beyond a single case to ask much larger questions about truth, justice and the price of both.

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