Shraddha Kapoor tore a muscle learning Lavani for Eetha

Shraddha Kapoor is stepping into one of Maharashtra’s most demanding stage traditions for Eetha — and the preparation came with a physical cost. At the trailer launch at Plaza Cinema in Dadar, Mumbai, the actor revealed she suffered a muscle tear while shooting a dance sequence for the film.

A new cultural world

Kapoor plays a Lavani dancer in Laxman Utekar’s new film, which takes loose inspiration from the life of celebrated folk performer Vithabai Bhau Mang Narayangaonkar. Speaking at the event, she said preparing for the part pulled her into a community and performance tradition she had not experienced before.

“I met very interesting people. I went into a completely different world,” she said, according to an NDTV report.

Then the production hit a setback. Kapoor said the muscle tear forced a pause, but the unit’s care helped her return to the floor.

“I had a muscle tear. But the team was so supportive. We had to stop the shoot because of his love and care; I could get back to shooting,” she said.

She added: “I had to understand Lavani; I had to practise a lot.”

Learning the grace, not just the steps

Director Laxman Utekar explained that the team did not want a surface-level version of the dance. They arranged a week-long workshop with veteran Lavani dancer Shakuntala Nagarkar at the makers’ office.

“We had got a very senior Lavani dancer, Shakuntala Nagarkar, to our office. With her, we did a one-week workshop just to understand the aadaye and nazakat,” Utekar said.

The line hints at how seriously the team treated the folk form’s grammar rather than reducing it to costume.

Not one woman’s biopic

Utekar clarified that Eetha is not a direct biopic. It borrows from incidents recorded in the book Tamasha: Vithabaichya Ayushyache. Kapoor widened the frame further.

“As he said, this is not just Vithabai’s story. It is a story of all those Tamasha artists, thousands of them,” she said.

Vithabai was born in Pandharpur in 1935 into a family of folk performers and rose to become a defining name in Maharashtra’s Tamasha and Lavani traditions. Her life carried both artistic highs and personal struggles — a backdrop that gives the film emotional stakes beyond the stage.

What fans can look forward to

• The film reunites Utekar with Maddock Films after Luka Chuppi, Mimi, Zara Hatke Zara Bachke and Chhaava.
• Kapoor continues her Maddock journey after the Stree franchise.
• The ensemble includes Randeep Hooda, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Nana Patekar, Siddharth Jadhav, Anant Joshi, Akshara Singh and Ulka Gupta.
• Ajay-Atul composes the music, and the film opens in cinemas on December 4, 2026.

For fans, the trailer is the first real look at the Tamasha and Lavani world in a big Hindi film. If the workshop detail is any guide, the makers are asking audiences to notice the form’s nuance — and Shraddha Kapoor has already paid for it in muscle and practice.

Source: The Times of India