Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga trailer – Pankaj Tripathi fights corruption, and a tiger in Srijit's upcoming Bollywood feature

The trailer of Srijit Mukherji’s Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga was dropped on June 3 – three weeks before its release date, June 24. The film features Pankaj Tripathi as the head of a poor village. It also has Sayani Gupta and Neeraj Kabi in lead roles. Soon after this release, his sports drama, Shabaash Mithu, which features Taapsee Pannu will be released in July.

The trailer shows that Pankaj Tripathi, who plays Gangaram – the sarpanch, is denied compensation by the government authorities after animals from the adjacent Pilibhit Tiger Reserve destroy their farm and property. He learns that the government will only give Rs10 lakh to a family whose family member is killed by a tiger from the reserve. He volunteers to die. He plans to enter the forest and put himself forward as a prey to the tiger so that his fellow villagers can get the money. Much to his wife’s (Sayani Gupta) disgust and fear, he compares his sacrifice with Bhagat Singh.

Upon entering the forest, he meets a poacher (Neeraj Kabi) and later, they are arrested by the forest department officials on suspicion of poaching. He tells the court that quite contrary to police’s suspicion, he actually went to the forest as a prey. While everybody laughs it off, a journalist reports the trial and that goes viral. The news shakes the nation. Soon, #JusticeForGangaram and #SherdilGangaram starts trending on social media. The trailer encapsulates man-animal conflict, Gangaram’s fight against the existing administrative corruption and essentially a human story from a regular Indian village.

Talking about the film, Srijit said in a press statement that it was real-life news that sowed the seed of the film. The village indeed had the bizarre practice of sending elderly family members to the forest as prey to get hold of government funds.

This is Srijit’s second Bollywood feature film after Begum Jaan was released in 2017. He directed two shorts in the Netflix anthology, Ray, in 2021. His next sports drama Shabaash Mithu, which is based on cricketer Mithali Raj’s life will be released in July.