‘Be shameless’: How Madhuri Dixit, Triptii Dimri and Dharna Durga embraced chaos in Maa Behen

For the role of Rekha, who has always been perceived as a ‘scarlet woman’ by the neighbours, Dixit was Triveni’s choice from the beginning. Many, however, discouraged him from approaching the actor, famous for her performances in blockbusters such as Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) and Devdas (2002). She won’t play a mother to grown-up daughters was the common assumption. “Eventually, I decided that if I have to hear a ‘no’, then I will hear it from Madhuri ma’am,” recalls Triveni. Maa Behen, a crime comedy that reflects how society judges unconventional women, is currently streaming on Netflix.

In 2024, Triveni and his co-writer Pooja Tolani set out from Mumbai’s Andheri to Dixit’s residence in Worli to give her a narration. On their way, they played popular songs picturised on Dixit. Not only did they get an affirmation from her to play Rekha, but they ended up spending close to four hours with her. After that, Triveni says in a lighter vein, they used “We have Madhuri Dixit on board” as a trump card.

Director Suresh Triveni and writer Pooja Tolani pose for photographs during an interview, in Mumbai (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

Triveni recalls using that when he met Dimri in Bhopal, where she was shooting for Dhadak 2 (2025). “After watching her in Bulbbul (2020) and Qala (2022), I was keen to cast her as Jaya. A month after our meeting, Animal (2023) became a massive hit. While congratulating her, I asked, ‘Will you still do my film?’ Her reply was: ‘Nothing changes, I’m doing your film’,” recalls Triveni, who earlier directed Tumhari Sulu (2017), Jalsa (2022) and Subedaar (2025).

To cast Durga as Jaya’s half-sister Sushma was Tolani’s idea. “I followed Dharna on social media and I really like her videos because she is uninhibited. There is something nicely awkward about her, which in my mind is how Sushma is,” recalls Tolani. When Dharna was called for a test, she arrived with a packet of coriander leaves. “Dharna knew she had to enact the kitchen scene where she is plucking the leaves and angrily reacts to her sister’s claims,” shares Tolani, who grew up in Kolkata and, in 2008, graduated in screenwriting from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.

Both Triveni and Tolani agree that a number of scenes in Maa Behen lean into physical comedy. Those scenes work because Dixit, Dimri and Durga worked on their chemistry. Reading and rehearsals apart, what helped was the workshop, with exercises specially designed for the three of them, conducted by Puja Sarup, actor and theatre practitioner. They played games, had fights and sang together. “We also had a lot of samosas during those sessions. I believe food breaks the ice every time,” says Triveni, who studied engineering and had a career in advertising before he veered into filmmaking.

Much before the three leading ladies came together, the journey of Maa Behen started when Triveni roped in Tolani as a “collaborator”. He was stuck after writing nearly 60 pages. Though Triveni had reached the mid-point, he was not able to carry the narrative forward to resolution. After they started jamming, Tolani not only nudged Triveni to question what he was trying to convey but gradually reworked the screenplay around the mother who makes a frantic call to her daughters to help her dispose of a dead body.

With the focus on “the complexities that women deal with while leading a life without men”, Tolani overhauled the script. “The body in a trunk is one of the oldest tropes in cinema. How does one tell the story differently? We wanted to bring in the flavour of Hindi and Malayalam pulp magazines. A few months prior to the shoot we came up with the idea to use that treatment during flashback sequences,” recalls Triveni, who was influenced by Manmohan Desai, Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma and Sai Paranjpye.

During every flashback, whether it is related to the character of Rekha, Jaya or Sushma, there’s an exaggeration in the narration and performances. Though some are calling this over-the-top, Triveni says it’s deliberate. “All the flashbacks are scenes that feature all rumours. Rumours are exaggerated and don’t have details. In flashbacks, Rekha is wearing one sari across various days. That’s deliberate too,” says Triveni and adds he wanted to add a touch of magical realism while keeping it entertaining.

Even though the film explores several feminist themes, Triveni believes that’s a by-product of having women as protagonists. “It’s not like you start with a situation where you want to smash patriarchy. Gender politics will come into the picture organically when it’s a woman’s story because that is their motivation. For instance, Rekha wearing sleeveless blouses is about her choice,” says the writer-director.

Tolani agrees with him and says, “For me, it started off with these three women who are carrying such a broken sort of personality. The dysfunctionality comes from the complex that each one of them had about growing up without a man. The film is about them coming together and healing in a way where they realise that they don’t need a man.”

Earlier, Tolani with Konkona Sen Sharma wrote the segment that the latter directed for Lust Stories 2 (2023).

Even as Maa Behen is trending on Netflix, it has also received mixed responses. “If our form of art creates a conversation, there is no bigger satisfaction than that. You can’t have everyone liking it. The chatter — whether it is about the narrative or form — is good,” says Triveni, who wants to work on a psychological horror or a musical next.