Vidya Balan’s upcoming film ‘Sherni’ is set to start streaming on Amazon Prime Video from tomorrow, i.e., June 18, 2021, onwards. Filmmakers globally have earlier made several films featuring Indian tigers as an integral plot device for driving the narrative forward. We have shortlisted for you five such films that exhibited the formidable big cat serving an important plot point.
1. Life of Pi (2012)
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee helmed this visually opulent film starring Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, and a Bengal Tiger in prominent roles.
The story follows a young man called Pi Patel, who is transporting his father’s zoo animals from India to Canada. During the journey, he survives a storm-induced shipwreck. He boards a lifeboat where he forms an unlikely alliance with a fellow survivor – a formidable Bengal Tiger. The survival story and the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker – the Tiger, forms the crux of the film’s dominant narrative.
2. Roar (2014)
Like Vidya Balan’s ‘Sherni’, ‘Roar’ is another Hindi film that touches upon the notion of man-animal conflict. The film is set against the magnificent backdrop of the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans.
After a photojournalist is killed by a white Tigress looking for her cub, his brother assembles a team to venture into the forbidden forest area in order to avenge his brother’s death. The ambitious film was admired for its special effects.
3. The White Tiger (2021)
An underprivileged but clever villager Balram Halwai (played by Adarsh Gaurav) is brainwashed by his poverty-stricken community to be a lifelong servant. To fulfill his aspirations, he makes his way to Dhanbad to become a driver for Ashok, the younger son of his affluent landlord.
Although the white tiger gets a short screen time, the protagonist’s encounter with it in a zoo plays a crucial role in the character’s motivations, which acts as a turning point in the film’s story.
4. Kaal (2005)
When two foreign nationals are allegedly killed by a ferocious man-eating tiger, National Geographic sends a tiger expert (John Abraham) along with his partner (Esha Deol) to investigate the veracity of the killings. He is later joined by a group of youngsters (Vivek Oberoi, Lara Dutta, etc.) on a hunting trip. They are helped by a local man (Ajay Devgn) amidst a spate of mysterious murders that follow.
5. Junoon (1992)
This Mahesh Bhatt‘s supernatural-horror flick follows the story of a young man (Rahul Roy) who gets fatally wounded by a cursed Tiger during a hunting expedition. After his miraculous recovery, he gains superpowers and transforms into a man-eating Tiger every full moon night. The virtually unkillable man intends to make his treating nurse (Pooja Bhatt) his next target.
Amit Masurkar’s forthcoming directorial film ‘Sherni’ revolves around a forest officer (played by Vidya Balan), who is sent to capture an unsettled Tigress amidst a man-animal conflict as she faces unexpected challenges. ‘Sherni’ is all geared up to start streaming on the Amazon Prime Video platform from June 18, 2021, onwards.
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