Months after Dhaakad saw Kangana Ranaut as an undercover agent with little success, Parineeti Chopra gives us another female spy to root for. Code Name Tiranga is a long-due attempt to break into the spy thriller genre that has been a male bastion. “This is my answer to the complaint about the lack of a female Bond. It was time to do an action film,” begins Chopra with a laugh.

Ribhu Dasgupta’s upcoming directorial venture sees her as undercover agent Durga who is tasked to neutralise one of India’s most wanted terrorists. While Harrdy Sandhu plays her love interest, Chopra leads the espionage thriller, front and centre. The movie is her attempt to break the perception that female actors can’t shoulder actioners.

“There was a time when we wanted actresses to play a certain sort of character. Heroines [were roped in] to play up the hero’s impact. Today, the audience is demanding different things. As [female] actors, we have all wanted to do these roles, but there can’t be a supply until there is a demand. Now, when the audience wants to watch such content, studios are happy to spend big money on them,” says the actor, who has tried to add diverse films to her kitty — be it Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017) or Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar (2021).

There is pressure on Chopra as one of the first movers in this genre. Before the film rolled, she did thorough homework by prepping in hand-to-hand combat and picking up Krav Maga. The actor feels the responsibility to tell the story in the best way possible, so that more producers are willing to bet on female-led actioners.

“I know Code Name Tiranga will be minutely critiqued. It may work for some, and not for others, but I am confident that the film will generate conversation. Regardless of its fate, I will do another action film. I don’t want the industry to shy away from such movies [anymore]. These are testing times for cinema, where we aren’t sure of the numbers we’ll fetch. But this Friday won’t change my hunger for doing ground-breaking films.”