Eetha
Overview
Vithabai Narayangaonkar is born into a Dalit Mang family in Pandharpur, where Tamasha and Lavani are not part of the cultural heritage.
From the 1940s through the 1990s, she moves through the travelling circuits of rural Maharashtra, building a voice that cuts through noise and a stage presence nobody forgets. She becomes the Tamasha Empress, earning two Presidential medals for keeping a folk art form alive that the world is comfortable watching disappear.
Eetha is about a woman who chooses to become something larger than herself, deliberately & with full awareness of the price. What that choice costs the people around her is where the real story lives.
Cast
Shraddha Kapoor
Randeep Hooda
Anant Joshi
Nana Patekar
Siddharth Jadhav
Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub
Ulka Gupta
Fun Facts
- Taking on the role of a Tamasha Samradini required high-energy, technically demanding Lavani choreography. Shraddha Kapoor pushed her physical limits so far during prep that she actually suffered a fracture in her left foot during the filming of a critical, high-tempo dance sequence. Production had to navigate the injury, but the actress insisted on keeping the momentum going once healed.
- The most shocking part of the film’s first teaser shows a heavily pregnant Vithabai stepping off stage mid-performance, giving birth backstage, cutting the umbilical cord, and immediately walking back out to finish her set. While it looks like a sensationalized movie trope, this actually happened in real life. In Marathi folklore, this 9-month-pregnant incident remains the ultimate symbol of Vithabai's unmatched, gritty commitment to her troupe and folk art.