Triptii Dimri
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
After stepping into the melodramatic, violent world of Vishal Bhardwaj’s bloody actioner, O’Romeo, and exuding intensity with her presence in Shazia Iqbal’s scathing political drama, Dhadak 2, Triptii Dimri is back with lighter shades in Maa Behen. The upcoming Netflix film places her in a middle-class neighbourhood in a North Indian town, sharing a complicated bond with her chirpy sister (Dharna Durga) and dramatic mother (Madhuri Dixit). Triptii channels a restless energy to bring out her character’s quirkiness, which is sharpened by her earthy, heartland Hindi accent.The actor says it was fun to learn the dialect. “We knew that we didn’t want a strong accent in the film, but just get the local dialect right with necessary flourishes. So, we practised with our dialect coach, Ganesh, who would ask us to react to certain things, make us sing songs, and do exercises that helped us navigate the language. By the time the shoot started, we got used to it so much that we didn’t have to think a lot,” says Triptii.Director Suresh Triveni says that he grew up listening to that sweet dialect of Hindi in Ranchi, Jharkhand. “The characters in Maa Behen are saying some harsh things to each other, and so I wanted to add a certain softness to it,” he adds.Suresh started writing Maa Behen in 2019 after the success of his debut Tumhari Sullu, a comedy-drama with an emotional touch. He wanted his next to be “a whacky film, full of wicked humour”.“The title of the film came to me first. Our producer, Vikram Malhotra, was quite excited about the one-line idea. He asked me to write quickly, and I think the pressure caught up to me,” Suresh quips, adding how he couldn’t complete the story until he met writer Pooja Tolani, who took over. “Pooja shaped the story quite well. We also made a big deal about the film’s casting. Everything came into place in 2024,” he says.
