Often, films are born from something personal. Sudhanshu Saria’s Sanaa too came from a personal desire—of living in a world that doesn’t discriminate against women. Coupling the thought with some of his own life experiences, the National Award-winning director began penning down the Radhika Madan-starrer five years ago. “The journey began with the desire for an equal world, where gender imbalance wasn’t so unfair. It began with the desire to talk about the epidemic of perfection and the pressure it puts on all of us, more on women,” recalls the director.

Around the same time, in 2018, the MeToo movement broke out in India, where countless women opened up about accounts of sexual harassment. These incidents further told the director of the rampant gender inequality and abuse in the country and around the world. “The MeToo movement was another trigger. The film came from there. Reading all the survivor stories made it clearer to me that men and women occupy the same spaces, but have completely different experiences,” recalls Saria, who then conceptualised a drama centred on an independent woman in Mumbai fighting her past traumas.