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What is the story about?
There is hardly anything new about a mainstream Hindi heroine turning producer after accumulating substantial influence and star power. But in spite of the predictability of the enterprise, there’s a novelty to how Alia Bhatt is winging her magic wand.
At only four projects old, her banner Eternal Sunshine Productions—which she founded with her elder sister Shaheen Bhatt in 2021—has built significant wattage and a brand identity difficult to pigeonhole. Each project is markedly different from the last and brings to fore an element (domestic abuse, prison rescue, wildlife crime, fresh faces) that requires immense celebrity muscle to garner public attention.
It’s not just diversity that’s at the centre of every Eternal Sunshine decision, there’s also a considerable focus on chutzpah. The banner’s willingness to take risks is evident in how it’s been consistently backing the marginalized—communities, issues, women, outsiders.
Its debut feature Darlings (2022) was directed by first-time filmmaker Jasmeet K Reen. Starring Alia, Shefali Shah and Vijay Varma, the Netflix film focused on the cyclical nature of domestic abuse. It deftly deployed dark humor to make a thorny theme palatable.
Next came Prime Video’s Malayalam mini-series Poacher (2023). Alia hopped on board as an executive producer after Richie Mehta had put together all the eight episodes. Eager to participate, she extended her heft to back a story revolving around a probe into a major elephant-poaching network in Kerala.
Eternal Sunshine announced Jigra soon after, extending its unusual slate. Directed by Vasan Bala—one of the most fascinating filmmakers in Hindi cinema today—the film flipped the traditional jailbreak narrative by putting a young, fragile-looking woman at the centre of a high-stakes rescue drama.
Of course, not all of Eternal Sunshine’s bets have landed. Jigra bombed at the box office. Its latest young-adult romcom Don’t Be Shy—out on Prime Video—has also been panned by critics as stale, stuffed and stilted. But the coming-of-age drama has given four first-time actors (Aarushi Bajaj, Ansh Duggal, Bianca Arora, Piyush Khati) and debutante filmmaker Sreeti Mukerji a glittering platform to shine on.
Moreover, at a time when Bollywood is frothing at the mouth for violence and machismo, Don’t Be Shy—like Lust Stories 3—serves as an opportune reminder for the Mumbai film industry that other genres also exist. And that the female experience is brimming to the full with a rich repertoire of untold stories which deserve as much attention and screen space if not more.
What also makes Eternal Sunshine’s journey thus far clutter-breaking is its eagerness to grow beyond Alia Bhatt and its insistence on resisting the allure of neat labels. It’s clearly discernible when a project has an agenda—film festival acclaim, award haul, box office dominance, mass appeal. But so far, Eternal Sunshine has preferred to surprise instead—to mix, match and jazz it up. The result is a mosaic of stories backed by two sisters unafraid to take risks and take up space.
Up until recently, actresses were largely positioned at the end of the filmmaking pipeline. A star could accept or reject a role, but it is not even remotely the same as building a project from scratch. Producing changes that equation. It allows heroines to participate upstream: to find writers, nurture scripts, commission filmmakers, package projects, attract financiers and decide what is worth risking money and reputation on. It also allows them to wield power, make meaning and stay relevant for much longer than their acting careers would typically let them.
However, in spite of the streaming boom which has entirely destabilized the box-office hegemony, thus encouraging more women to join in, the phenomenon of heroines turning producers is still at a nascent stage in India. Juhi Chawla, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Anushka Sharma, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Kriti Sanon, Richa Chadha, the list is ballooning by the day.
But most of them are too new, others inconsistent. However, if you look at their collective output, these actresses have been behind some of the most blistering, subversive films to come out of Hindi cinema in recent memory.
Her predecessors walked so Alia Bhatt and those freshly coming into the fold could run, make the kind of bold bets that our cinema desperately needs, and let women, newcomers and unfamiliar perspectives occupy the centre they have been lumbering towards for generations now.
At only four projects old, her banner Eternal Sunshine Productions—which she founded with her elder sister Shaheen Bhatt in 2021—has built significant wattage and a brand identity difficult to pigeonhole. Each project is markedly different from the last and brings to fore an element (domestic abuse, prison rescue, wildlife crime, fresh faces) that requires immense celebrity muscle to garner public attention.
It’s not just diversity that’s at the centre of every Eternal Sunshine decision, there’s also a considerable focus on chutzpah. The banner’s willingness to take risks is evident in how it’s been consistently backing the marginalized—communities, issues, women, outsiders.
Its debut feature Darlings (2022) was directed by first-time filmmaker Jasmeet K Reen. Starring Alia, Shefali Shah and Vijay Varma, the Netflix film focused on the cyclical nature of domestic abuse. It deftly deployed dark humor to make a thorny theme palatable.
Next came Prime Video’s Malayalam mini-series Poacher (2023). Alia hopped on board as an executive producer after Richie Mehta had put together all the eight episodes. Eager to participate, she extended her heft to back a story revolving around a probe into a major elephant-poaching network in Kerala.
Eternal Sunshine announced Jigra soon after, extending its unusual slate. Directed by Vasan Bala—one of the most fascinating filmmakers in Hindi cinema today—the film flipped the traditional jailbreak narrative by putting a young, fragile-looking woman at the centre of a high-stakes rescue drama.
Of course, not all of Eternal Sunshine’s bets have landed. Jigra bombed at the box office. Its latest young-adult romcom Don’t Be Shy—out on Prime Video—has also been panned by critics as stale, stuffed and stilted. But the coming-of-age drama has given four first-time actors (Aarushi Bajaj, Ansh Duggal, Bianca Arora, Piyush Khati) and debutante filmmaker Sreeti Mukerji a glittering platform to shine on.
Moreover, at a time when Bollywood is frothing at the mouth for violence and machismo, Don’t Be Shy—like Lust Stories 3—serves as an opportune reminder for the Mumbai film industry that other genres also exist. And that the female experience is brimming to the full with a rich repertoire of untold stories which deserve as much attention and screen space if not more.
What also makes Eternal Sunshine’s journey thus far clutter-breaking is its eagerness to grow beyond Alia Bhatt and its insistence on resisting the allure of neat labels. It’s clearly discernible when a project has an agenda—film festival acclaim, award haul, box office dominance, mass appeal. But so far, Eternal Sunshine has preferred to surprise instead—to mix, match and jazz it up. The result is a mosaic of stories backed by two sisters unafraid to take risks and take up space.
Up until recently, actresses were largely positioned at the end of the filmmaking pipeline. A star could accept or reject a role, but it is not even remotely the same as building a project from scratch. Producing changes that equation. It allows heroines to participate upstream: to find writers, nurture scripts, commission filmmakers, package projects, attract financiers and decide what is worth risking money and reputation on. It also allows them to wield power, make meaning and stay relevant for much longer than their acting careers would typically let them.
However, in spite of the streaming boom which has entirely destabilized the box-office hegemony, thus encouraging more women to join in, the phenomenon of heroines turning producers is still at a nascent stage in India. Juhi Chawla, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Anushka Sharma, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Kriti Sanon, Richa Chadha, the list is ballooning by the day.
But most of them are too new, others inconsistent. However, if you look at their collective output, these actresses have been behind some of the most blistering, subversive films to come out of Hindi cinema in recent memory.
Her predecessors walked so Alia Bhatt and those freshly coming into the fold could run, make the kind of bold bets that our cinema desperately needs, and let women, newcomers and unfamiliar perspectives occupy the centre they have been lumbering towards for generations now.
