When director Amit Masurkar and team began researching for Sherni, they learnt that in conservation circles, the tiger is the flagship species. If you conserve the tiger, the ecosystem and other minor species that inhabit it, are safeguarded. It’s how the focus on conserving the tiger became the thrust of the movie.
 
The film directed by Masurkar, written by Aastha Tiku, stars Vidya Balan in the lead role, and releases on Amazon Prime Video this week. It tackles the complex human-animal conflict. Balan plays an Indian Forest Services officer, who is assigned with the job of finding a solution to a man-eating tigress, who has caused havoc among the villagers and forest officials alike. Masurkar, best known for directing the National award-winning film Newton, says there was a four-pronged process  behind making the movie. “Firstly, we wanted to set the philosophy in place. Conservation is a community activity that needs effort by a team. It’s what Vidya’s character is assigned to manage,” he says. Addressing the issue of underlying patriarchy that Balan’s character fights while doing her job, the film looks at how she puts systems in place when she realises that a transfer may be imminent. “Second, we had to create the character, which we did after detailed meetings with forest officials. Third was about getting the plot right, which was the easiest bit. And last was to address the little details, which we took care of as we filmed and the actors brought 
their own little something to their roles.” 

Amit Masurkar is also the director of Rajkumar Rao starrer Newton