Bhavai (2021)

Raja Ram has always wanted to act. When a touring theatre troupe comes to his village in Gujarat to stage the Ramayana, he talks his way into the company and ends up playing the demon king Raavan. Off stage he falls for Rani, the actress who plays Sita, and their romance sets the troupe, the village and its powerful men against them, while his performance makes audiences look at Raavan differently. The film takes its name from Bhavai, the Gujarati folk theatre form, and is a portrait of rural travelling drama companies. It was Pratik Gandhi's first big-screen lead after his breakthrough in Scam 1992; the film was originally titled Raavan Leela and renamed before release after objections.