Rashmi Rocket has dared to do what other Indian sports dramas didn’t — examine the flaws of the system in the world of sports. In telling the story of the protagonist, essayed by Taapsee Pannu, the film highlights how some women athletes’ careers have been hampered by the age-old gender-testing practices. Akarsh Khurana’s directorial venture also depicts how an uninformed section of the population wrongly questions Rashmi’s gender due to her hyperandrogenism. While the protagonist is eventually shown pregnant, Pannu says it was a conscious call to not play the pregnancy card to win the gender-testing case in the film.

“It was a wow moment when I heard [the plot point]. I give the credit to writers Aniruddha [Guha] and Akarsh for the screenplay and the script; they made sure they didn’t use the pregnancy card [to determine her womanhood]. Why should you even have to prove [your womanhood?],” emphasises Pannu. The ZEE5 drama, conceived by Nandha Periyasamy, is co-written by Kanika Dhillon and Lisha Bajaj.