When a script revolves around an ensemble of men, cinema seldom bothers labeling it a 'male-centric film'. It is simply treated as a movie. Yet, pitch four women in central roles, and the industry reflexively slaps on an earnest, often isolating label.

For the team of Naaku Tanthi, starring Sangeetha Bhat, Roshni Prakash, Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, and Kushee Ravi, that very paradox took centre stage. The filmmakers and actors were quick to push past standard talking points, refusing to let the project be boxed into convenient feminist tropes or dismissed as an academic exercise.

"When a mainstream hero's film arrives, nobody calls it a male-centric film; it is just introduced as a movie," actor Roshni Prakash pointed out during the press meet. "Why should stories about women carry an asterisk? If a story has genuine emotional depth and honesty, audiences connect regardless of gender."

For first-time directors, mounting an independent two-hour theatrical film without commercial crutches is an uphill climb. Four short filmmakers, Gautham Anvith, Mahesh Raj, Shashikumar V, and Preetham Shivakumar, decided to bypass that bottleneck entirely by pooling their resources.

The result is not a disconnected anthology of shorts, but a multi-narrative feature woven around middle-class realities.

"All four of us come from short filmmaking, where we spent nearly eight years taking small, persistent steps," explained director Preetham Shivakumar. "We all had full-length scripts ready, but finding backers in this market takes years. Instead of waiting around, we asked: why not combine our craft into one single theatrical film? It functioned almost like our own film school: when one directed, the other three worked on set as assistant directors, managing production, sets, and logistics."

Director Gautham Anvith echoed the sentiment: "Every time you pitch a film in Gandhinagar, the first question thrown at you is: 'Who is the hero?' In Naaku Tanthi, our four female characters and their everyday battles are the heroes of this narrative."

The teaser offers a preview of four grounded characters navigating hostile urban spaces. Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy of Aachar & Co fame plays an on-duty traffic constable navigating road rage, dust, physical exhaustion, and quiet systemic corruption. Sindhu even underwent stunt choreography for the part. Sindhu said, "We complain about Bengaluru’s traffic every day, but rarely register the constable standing in the heat, managing chaos while wrestling with their own physical and emotional fatigue. It is a demanding, unglamorous role, and the director even made me do action sequences for it."

Kushee Ravi of Dia fame plays an everyday hospital nurse whose routine shifts into turmoil when high-profile figures from the film world enter her ward, testing her patience, ethics, and caregiving duties.

Roshni Prakash, known for her role in Kavaludaari, explores corporate isolation, portraying a young IT employee whose ambitions clash with harsh workplace realities.

Sangeetha Bhat portrays a middle-class homemaker anchoring a domestic storm through understated resilience.

The production itself had an equally grassroots journey. Co-producer Yogesh Basavanagowda, an agriculturist from Belur, backed the film. "I am a farmer and a film lover at heart," said Basavanagowda, who was later joined by producer Jayarama Devasamudra of Suram Movies.

"Suram Movies has always backed strong writing over formulaic stars," Jayarama said. "The filmmakers had already shot around 70 to 80 per cent of their material with genuine conviction. When I saw the visual footage, the emotional honesty was clear. It deserved a complete theatrical finish."

The technical team mirrors the multi-lens format: four cinematographers captured the distinct worlds of the four protagonists, with music composed by Sumedh K, who previously worked on Su From So, and a background score by Ronada Bakkesh.