Writer Nikhil Mehrotra has three sports dramas in his resume—Dangal (2016), Panga (2020) and the upcoming Mr & Mrs Mahi. But he refrains from slotting them in the genre. To him, the sport is secondary. “The story is about people and their emotions. If Panga was just about kabaddi, would it land? No, it had to be a woman’s story who leaves the sport and returns to it. With Mr & Mrs Mahi, I was excited about telling the story of cricket and a couple,” he explains.

Starring Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor, Mr & Mrs Mahi revolves around a doctor whose husband—a former cricketer—discovers her talent for the game. The drama marks Mehrotra’s reunion with director Sharan Sharma after Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020). “It’s a blessing working with people who understand what you are trying to say even before you say it. He is aligned with my vision.”