Before Nukkad Naatak reached Netflix, its makers were travelling across North India in a caravan, performing street plays outside places like Hawa Mahal and Taj Mahal, to build awareness around their independent film, which had been struggling to secure a theatrical release.
Directed by Tanmaya Shekhar and starring Molshri and Shivang Rajpal in lead roles, Nukkad Naatak finally hit the theatres on February 27 this year; it was made available on Netflix on April 24. The coming-of-age drama revolves around two college friends who are expelled after stealing from their college canteen and are asked to enrol five children from a nearby slum into a school to be reinstated. Besides humour and friendship, the film addresses serious themes of education, inequality and queerness as well.
Far from easy
Shekhar said that he got the idea of the film when visiting a slum in Dhanbad in 2022, with his mother, who had begun teaching kids there. At the time, his father was serving as the director of IIT ISM (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad.
“The slum was only three or four kilometres away from the IIT campus, but the difference between the two worlds was shocking,” he remarked, recalling how the area lacked even basic facilities like electricity and water, while many children had no access to education at all. “It felt like two Indias existing next to each other.”
An IIT Kanpur graduate himself, with a background in data science, Shekhar had spent years pitching larger-budget projects in India and the US before deciding to independently produce his own films. Shekhar has worked on several projects, including the comedy-drama The Fragrance Thief (2015), the short film A Sari For Pallavi (2019), and the documentary Farmers For America (2020), which explores the agricultural crisis in the US, among others. Nukkad Naatak is also not his and Molshri’s first collaboration; the duo previously worked together on the short film Scenes From A Pandemic (2024).
The journey of Nukkad Naatak, however, was far from easy. The entire process, from writing the script in 2022 to the film’s release in 2026, took four years; funding was one of the biggest challenges throughout. “We were constantly raising money,” he said. “It was never like all the money came together at once. We would get some funds, start shooting, run out of money, then raise more for editing, music or film festival travel.”
Taking control
Shekhar and Molshri connected with IIT alumni and contacts on LinkedIn to secure funding. About 30–35 people contributed varying amounts, helping the team put together the budget. After wrapping the film in December 2024, months were spent pitching to production houses, distributors, and OTT platforms. Emails frequently went unanswered, and meetings proved hard to land. It was then that the team decided to connect directly with audiences, bypassing the wait for industry validation.
This inspired their social media series How to Enter Bollywood. It's a 25-episode compilation capturing the team's struggles and uncertainties in breaking into the world of cinema with Nukkad Naatak. The crew then toured North India for six weeks in a caravan, hitting 12 cities and organising small events at schools, colleges, and public spaces. They would perform songs from the film songs or stage mini street plays to spotlight Nukkad Naatak.
“That road trip really helped us build buzz,” Shekhar said. “Eventually even PVR INOX had heard about the film.” The film reached Netflix after the team shared screening photos and data, including sold-out shows, via email.
Story of ‘real people’
What Nukkad Naatak does differently is give people from the slum acting roles. Molshri, who is also one of the casting directors, said most of the faces in the basti scenes are actual residents. “We did not have any formal casting setup there,” she said, adding that they were only reaching out to theatre groups and people through word of mouth.
The team found actor Nirmala Hajra, who plays the key child role of Chhoti, during theatre exercises they were running at a local school. Molshri was struck by how naturally the child performed, saying, “She (Hajra) instantly understood scenes and emotions. Even the camera team was surprised because she never missed her mark, which is something even professional actors sometimes do.”
The film also keeps many of the actors’ real names in the story. Shekhar jokingly admitted this partly came from the inexperience of being a first-time writer-director. “It made writing easier because I could visualise the actors while writing the scenes,” he remarked, laughing.
The less-travelled road
The journey of Nukkad Naatak also highlights the importance of independent cinema for newcomers trying to find space in the industry. Despite the challenges of entering the field without the backing of an established studio, Molshri spoke about both the uncertainty and creative freedom that come with indie filmmaking. “You don’t know if the film will be released or when people will watch it. But you get to collaborate, experiment and learn while making something together.”
She added that aspiring actors and filmmakers should continue creating and sharing their work, even in small ways. “There’s a lot of power in just putting yourself out there consistently,” she said. “If you keep making things, eventually people connect with it.”