Bihar’s Feisty Daughter

  “Maa se baat karne se pehle beti se baat karo” (Before talking to the mother, talk to the daughter), as she delivers this fierce dialogue, turning towards her party, her slight figure held tightly, Shweta Basu Prasad captures the spirit of the powerful new addition to Maharani’s cast.

As Roshni Bharti, Rani Bharti’s (Huma Qureshi) daughter, she is whip smart, extra careful about her party’s image, and utterly ruthless when it comes to using power to protect what she believes in. She believes in her mother, in standing up to bullies, and in running her state without interference.

But this is 2025, and Bihar is currently a politi­cal football. Why is the Prime Minister not giving the state its due, even if it run by a different political party, asks Roshni of her mother’s closest advisor. You are speaking as if this is the age of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, he laughs.

Whether it is the coalition of disparate forces that Rani is trying to assemble against Prime Minister Joshi or trying to fight leaks within her own party, Roshni is trying to create a Naya Bihar. Just like her mother.