From Music Videos to Feature Film: Revati Mahurkar Takes the Lead in Hostage Thriller Powder

MUMBAI, [DATE] — Fifteen people. One room. No air conditioning. Twelve-hour days in the same clothes and the same hair. For ten days, actor Revati Mahurkar lived inside a hostage situation, and that was the job.

The film is Powder, an independent thriller in which Mahurkar plays one of the leads. It is currently in post-production and will make its way to film festivals and OTT platforms.

Known for her lead roles in music videos for Guru Randhawa, Harddy Sandhu and Prince Narula, Mahurkar built her screen presence one video at a time. Videos such as Qatal and Tevar have drawn hundreds of millions of views, and each asked her to become someone new in a few minutes, often without a single line of dialogue. After playing a wide variety of characters on screen for some of the country’s biggest artists, she wanted to turn that experience towards film.

Powder gave her that chance. The film is directed by Hardik Sshah, a National School of Drama alumnus who has written and directed across Indian OTT platforms.

Powder follows an unlikely mix of strangers who find themselves trapped together in a situation that reveals more about each of them than anything they have experienced before.

Every detail of that shoot was real. At least 15 cast and crew worked in a single room, packed in alongside the camera and lights. The air conditioning was switched off for sound, even through 12-hour days. Costumes and hair never changed from the first day to the last. By the end, the line between the story and the set had worn thin: it felt like a real hostage situation.

For Mahurkar, that pressure was the point. “In music videos, I tell a story in four minutes. I wanted to know if I could carry a character through an entire film,” she says. “Powder gave me nowhere to hide. Shooting in one room with so many cast and crew members was certainly a challenge. At some point, the heat and the long hours stopped being something we were working through and became part of the scene. But in the end, the learning and the process were worth it. I walked out of that room a different actor.”

With Powder in post-production, Mahurkar is already on to her next big-screen appearance: a commercial song in an upcoming feature film, with details under wraps for now.