Netflix released the teaser trailer of The White Tiger. It is set to hit select theatres in December 2020 and will be streamed on the platform in January 2021.
Based on Aravind Adiga’s 2008 Man Booker-winning debut novel of the same name, the film introduces Adarsh Gourav in the lead. It also stars Rajkummar Rao and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
The official teaser trailer of The White Tiger starts from Gourav’s character, Balram Halwai, narrating how, when a person comes to India, they will meet ‘hundreds of millions of servants’ like him. He is the new driver of Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), a couple who have just returned from America.
Halwai, hailing from a nondescript village in rural India, takes a shine to his rich masters who roam the power corridors of Delhi NCR. But, it soon wears off as he becomes aware of the glaring class divide and gets a peek at what truly goes on behind-the-scenes of the rich and the famous.
Adapted for the screen and directed by “the new director of the decade” Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop), the film brings to light India’s class struggle through a darkly humorous perspective. It is Halwai’s story of going from rags to riches where, in the teaser trailer itself, he goes from:
“The desire to be a servant had been bred into me” to “It is the century of the brown man and the yellow man and God save everybody else”.
The film version of The White Tiger follows the narrative method of the New York Times bestseller, where Halwai is living his life in retrospect after coming to terms with the trap that life actually is. He manages to become a new kind of master in the end, but at what cost.
Gourav has made a mark with his acting in web series such as Hostel Daze, Die Trying, and Leila. And in this film, he seems to be in his element as he portrays the character of a poor driver who manages to break free from a life of servitude.
The film was shot with an Indian crew in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Dhanbad, and Agra. Earlier this month, Priyanka Chopra shared the first look stills of The White Tiger.
Interestingly, Adiga had dedicated his novel to Bahrani when it was first published. Their friendship goes way back to when they were undergraduate students together at Columbia University in New York.
The film deals with the themes of not only class struggle but also globalisation, individualism, and freedom from oppression.
Netflix will be releasing the film globally in multiple languages, including in Hindi. Here’s the teaser:
Also Read: Assassin’s Creed to get live-action treatment on Netflix