Rarely does an opportunity present itself when a project speaks to the human in you. So, when Tanishaa Mukerji was offered the short film Agni Daah—a story of a girl abandoned in a dumpster at birth and then raised in a crematorium—the decision was a no-brainer.

“It is a true story of a girl who works in a cemetery. Our director [Yogendra Chaubal] saw her and felt he needed to tell her story,” says Mukerji, who wanted to delve into the long-lasting effect of childhood trauma that girls experience once they grow up.

She believes that the theme of the film is an extension of what women in the country face on a daily basis in the form of patriarchy. “Being a woman in India is not easy. A lot of the disrespect is subtle and ingrained. Like, when a woman is talking, how people ignore her,” says the actor, adding that the story also focuses on her relationship with death.

“She is wearing the clothes of the dead, and hence gets disconnected from the idea of what death means. She is just trying to survive,” she explains.