Why Rahul Dholakia made a film about firefighters: ‘They are marginalised in every way’

After a recent preview screening of Rahul Dholakia’s Agni, a viewer informed the director that he was going to call 101, the emergency number for the Mumbai Fire Brigade, and thank whoever was on the line. That is the primary reason Dholakia made Agni.

“When I started off, I didn’t entirely realise the importance of making this film,” Dholakia told Scroll. “But when we screened it for firefighters, we realised that the film needed to be made.”

Agni explores the undervalued heroism of the personnel of the Mumbai Fire Brigade. The plot follows a unit led by Pratik Gandhi’s station chief as it douses blazes across Mumbai. In addition to rescuing people while risking injury or death, the firefighters grapple with the possibility that an arsonist is on the loose.

Agni will be premiered on December 6 on Prime Video. Apart from Pratik Gandhi, the movie stars Saiyami Kher, Jitendra Joshi and Udit Arora as firefighters. Sai Tamhankar plays the wife of Vitthal, Gandhi’s character, while Divyyendu is Samit, a police officer and Vitthal’s brother-in-law.

Dholakia was inspired to make Agni after directing a documentary in the United States, where he lives when he is not in Mumbai. In 2021, Dholakia documented an event in New Jersey called the Police...

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