Playing his trump card
Siddharth P Malhotra
After a decade of waiting in the wings, Siddharth P Malhotra has finally played his ikka, or trump card—reuniting two of Hindi cinema’s current bankable stars, Sunny Deol and Akshaye Khanna, in the taut courtroom drama Ikka, now streaming on Netflix
Getting the film made, however, was a battle in itself. Despite support from filmmakers like Aditya Chopra and Luv Ranjan during the scripting stage, Malhotra says producers repeatedly asked him to shelve the project. Looking back, he feels the film’s fate mirrored his own career. “It is a courtroom drama high on emotion, but other than Sunny Deol, everyone—producers and actors alike—asked me to wait. After We Are Family (2010), my career wasn’t really flying. It took me years to make Hichki (2018), and after its success I was typecast. Maharaj (2024) proved I could handle scale, but I honestly feel filmmakers are tested. But if you believe in a story, even if it takes years, you’ll find a way to tell it.”
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Ikka follows prosecutor Arjun Mehra (Sunny Deol), who is forced to defend Shaurymann Gaur (Akshaye Khanna), a murder suspect he had once prosecuted. As the courtroom battle unfolds, the case becomes Arjun’s toughest challenge, both professionally and personally. The film also reunites Deol and Khanna nearly three decades after Border. While Deol has enjoyed a resurgence with Gadar 2 and Khanna with Dhurandhar, Malhotra insists audiences should come for the ideological clash between two men, not the baggage of their recent successes. “We finished shooting by December 2025, just as Dhurandhar released and everyone was applauding Akshaye. I told him that Ikka had a very different tonality. He just said, ‘You made the film you wanted to make. The rest doesn’t matter.’”
For Malhotra, the challenge of making films today extends well beyond finding a producer. Between theatrical releases and streaming platforms, every project is subjected to commercial calculations that often leave little room for creativity. Ironically, he believes getting a film made for OTT is now harder than it is perceived to be. “There are too many permutations and combinations now. Everyone is investing money, so it has to make business sense while also empowering the creator. It’s a privilege to have your story told.”
Hindi cinema, Malhotra says, has become too preoccupied with emulating Hollywood at the cost of emotional authenticity. For him, audiences stay with characters, not just plot
Hindi cinema, he argues, has become too preoccupied with emulating Hollywood at the cost of emotional authenticity. For him, audiences stay with characters, not just plot twists or spectacle. “We’re trying to make American films,” he says. “But if you don’t emotionally root for the character, the plot is just a device. The only way is to make an honest film you believe in. The camera catches that energy.”
Courtroom dramas continue to fascinate Malhotra because they place human relationships under a microscope. Even as Ikka releases, he already has another legal drama in mind, centred on a family battling over its legacy. “Within the courtroom, you can play with the dynamics between characters. The people on the witness stand have lives beyond the courtroom, just as those questioning them. That interplay of emotions is what interests me.”
Yet the project closest to his heart is Kamal and Meena, a script based on the relationship between Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari that he has recently completed. “It’s the story of a filmmaker and his muse—their marriage, its passion, its turbulence and toxicity. We have access to over 2,000 of their letters in Urdu, translated by Javed Akhtar and Kausar Munir. The challenge now is finding the perfect cast and producers.” Waiting, it seems, remains Malhotra’s greatest trump card
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