The last time we saw Dhairya Karwa was as a Mumbai-based writer in Gehraiyaan (2022). His next, Apurva, largely set in Chambal, is a story that could scare the life out of any city dweller. Director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s survival drama follows Tara Sutaria’s titular character as she fights her male assailants after being abducted from a bus. Karwa plays her fiancé who sets out in search of her. “The only way to survive such [intense] films is to take it a little less seriously. But the subject cannot be [taken lightly]. A film like this reflects generational conditioning,” says the actor.

Karwa is unfazed that the Disney+ Hotstar movie is centred on Sutaria and Abhishek Banerjee’s characters. To him, it was the messaging that mattered. “I knew it’s a great story. When you are starting out, it’s more important to establish the kind of stories that matter to you.”