Synopsis: Arshia, Mridu and Fulwari are three entrepreneurs from Telangana, Assam and Rajasthan. While waiting for their venture funding event to begin, they find themselves opening up their hearts, sharing about their entrepreneurial journey, experiences and hardships. Despite their varied cultures, upbringing and nature of businesses, they find a connection with each other. They return with something far more valuable than the funding they came seeking—a renewed sense of confidence, solidarity and belief in the power of community.

Making of Pahal

Research

HER&NOW is an initiative of GIZ in partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India, created to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women-led businesses across the country. As part of the initiative's positive mindset campaign, Girgit Studios was commissioned to create a film that would inspire aspiring women entrepreneurs through authentic, relatable stories rooted in real experiences.

Rather than beginning with a script, we began by listening.

Our research engaged over 35 women entrepreneurs across diverse ages, geographies and socio-economic backgrounds—from first-generation entrepreneurs to experienced business owners, from metropolitan cities to smaller towns, and from women running traditional enterprises to those building businesses in non-gender stereotyped sectors.

As part of our primary research, we conducted in-depth one-on-one interviews with women entrepreneurs at WE-Hub, Hyderabad, documented conversations with entrepreneurs in Pune, and carried out telephonic interviews with participants from Rajasthan and Assam. We also interacted with organisations working closely with Tier II and Tier III women entrepreneurs to better understand the realities of their entrepreneurial journeys.

These conversations revealed recurring challenges that cut across geography and industry—limited family support shaped by traditional gender roles, mobility and safety concerns, unequal access to finance, societal bias, and the emotional resilience required to persist despite repeated setbacks.

The film's characters and narrative emerged directly from these lived experiences. Rather than portraying a single entrepreneur's story, Pahal weaves together shared emotions, aspirations and challenges into a fictional narrative that reflects the collective experiences of women entrepreneurs across India. To ensure broad cultural resonance, the three protagonists were intentionally rooted in different regions of the country—Telangana, Assam and Rajasthan—bringing distinct identities together through a common entrepreneurial journey.

Visual Development

To help ground the characters to the contexts they belonged to, we made the Art treatments different for the present narrative and the individual backstories for each of the three women.

For the present day scenes, this section was done in 3D animation with semi-realistic stylization that helped us emote the characters well in animation. We wanted the audience to connect with the characters despite their less exposure to the medium of animation for serious themes as ours.

For each region we looked at some traditional elements, ranging from art forms, Textiles, Food, Architecture etc and exploring ways to design a unique visual treatment representing the characters and space.

Mridu’s character is meant to connect with the young women (aspiring) entrepreneurs. Though confident yet despite her education she suffers self doubt.

So we planned for a flowy morphing style of animations with symbolic/metaphorical pop-art elements corresponding to the narration that the youth can relate to for its energy and dynamism.

Fulwari’s character is meant to connect with the women coming from traditional families who need to align all their family members and responsibility and yet dare to dream big.

We placed her in a smaller city of Rajasthan having a traditional house decorated with wall paintings.

We looked at mix-media execution and use of perspective in this animation. Also looked at how direct textures could be used for costumes in character design. We also explored how “food and/or utensils” can be integrated in the visual design as photographs.

The purpose of showing almost unbelievably and apparently problem free journey of Arshia is to subtly depict what a deadly combination “Positive solution oriented attitude and a supportive family” can be for a woman entrepreneur.

Her story based in Hyderabad also aspires to inspire women from Muslim families.

Production

Recording with Voice Actors

Our script and characters were brought to life by the talented actors Ashwini Kalsekar, Dipannita Sharma Atwal and Namita Gupta. Through our recording sessions with them, they added the personality and earnestness to Mridu, Arshia and Fulwari that makes them easy to connect with.

Voice of Mridu | Dipannita Sharma Atwal

Voice of Arshia | Namita Gupta

Voice of Fulwari | Ashwini Kalsekar

Working with Actors

To help further ground our characters, we worked with theatre actors who added characteristic gestures and body language to each character. The young and expressive Mridu, the modest and hesitant nature of Fulwari and the modernity and grace of Arshia- their acting served as reference and inspiration for our animation.

Actors:

Mridu | Payal Jadhav

Fulwari | Apurva Kulkarni

Arshia | Shruti Kulkarni

Animation

Since, we decided to go for a multi-treatment approach for the film, this not only helped us capture the cultural diversity India has to offer, but also helped us distribute the production pipeline between exclusive teams within the studio to meet the pressing production timeline.

Krishna Kothari led the animation for Mridu’s Story, Aman Luthia led Arshia’s story sequences. Anuj Kumar, co-founder at Girgit led Fulwari’s story sequences while Aditya Hegde Led the 3D animation coordinating with Crazy Cub studios who did the 3D character animations.

For the connecting segments in the story we used a 3D animation route restricting it to a single environment interview format camera work to ensure smart timely yet quality output. Like most of our films we shot acting references of theatre actors as per our storyboard. This helped us maintain a consistent body language and acting performance of the 3D characters. This also helped in speeding the 3D character animations.  

Releasing Pahal- An Initiative

Pahal was created as part of HER&NOW's Positive Mindset Campaign, using storytelling to foster greater empathy and support for women entrepreneurs. While the film celebrates the journeys of women building businesses across India, its primary audience extends beyond aspiring entrepreneurs to the families, communities and support systems that shape their entrepreneurial journeys.

Grounded in extensive primary research and lived experiences, the film highlights the often-invisible barriers women face—from gender stereotypes and unequal caregiving responsibilities to limited mobility, access to finance and societal bias. By bringing these realities into the open through relatable characters and authentic storytelling, the film encourages families, peers and communities to become enablers rather than obstacles, creating an environment where women can dream bigger and realise their entrepreneurial aspirations.

The film has travelled across India through entrepreneurship cohorts, workshops and community screenings as part of the wider HER&NOW initiative. Screened in 30+ cities through 77+ screenings, it has engaged over 8,700 participants, contributing to conversations around representation, resilience and the importance of building a more supportive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs.

Ultimately, Pahal demonstrates how Human-Centred Design and storytelling can transform research into narratives that build empathy, shift mindsets and inspire meaningful social change.