New Delhi [India], September 16 : Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor Khan talked about navigating the moral conflict between law and justice while portraying police officer Ajooni in Meghna Gulzar’s ‘Daayra’, saying the film explores a space where the truth is not always simply black and white.
The film stars Kareena and Prithviraj Sukumaran as cops who face off while navigating the dark and complex world of juvenile crime. As per the makers, the movie is "inspired by true events."
“Jaise Gulzar Sahab ne likha tha in the song, ‘sach ka daayra toh badalte rehta hai’,” Kareena said, explaining the challenge of staying aligned with Ajooni amid the film’s central conflict.
Lead stars Kareena, Prithviraj and the director, Meghna were in Delhi to promote their film.
“It was difficult for me also to stay on track with Ajooni because there is always going to be a conflict. I’m sure as a director Meghna felt that while writing it, I’m sure Prithviraj’s character, Raman, has felt that. So, it is very difficult,” she added while speaking to the media.
Kareena said that while she personally prefers to see things in clear terms, ‘Daayra’ operates in a morally ambiguous space.
“But as a person, I walk the straight line. I like to believe in life that it’s black and white. But in the film, it is grey. That is for sure,” she said.
In ‘Daayra’, Kareena plays Ajooni, a police officer whose approach to justice is rooted in law and procedure. The character is also a departure from the conventional portrayal of female police officers on screen, with Kareena describing Ajooni as feminine, calm and stern rather than an action-oriented cop.
“There has traditionally been a stereotypical format for female cops where she has to be butch, walk in a certain masculine way, and pick up a gun to do high-octane action,” Kareena said.


According to the actor, Gulzar wanted Ajooni to be “unapologetically feminine”, someone who wears lipstick, maintains a calm demeanour and handles situations with a smile while remaining firm in her principles.
“Ajooni isn’t someone who resorts to guns and typical action heroics; that is simply not her character,” she said.
Director Meghna Gulzar said the difficulty in ‘Daayra’ lies in refusing to reduce the conflict to a simple choice between two sides.

“The moral conundrum overlaps on both ends, the strict letter of the law versus the delivery of justice,” she said, adding that the film seeks to examine how such conflicts can be addressed.
Meghna said the law, justice, crime and punishment may appear as recurring themes in her films, but her primary interest remains the human quotient behind these subjects.
“It is purely coincidence; it is not by design. What attracts me to a story is the human quotient, what happens to the human emotion in that circumstance,” she said.
Prithviraj Sukumaran, who plays DCP Raman Kumar, said the film deliberately operates within a grey zone rather than asking audiences to simply choose between Ajooni and Raman.
“I don't agree with the entirety of Raman's actions, nor do I completely disagree with him,and the same applies to Ajooni,” he said. 
Prithviraj also contrasted ‘Daayra’ with his earlier film ‘Jana Gana Mana’, saying the latter used a specific incident to comment on broader socio-political dynamics, while ‘Daayra’ focuses on the legal and systemic processes that follow an incident.
The actor said his decision to join ‘Daayra’ was also driven by the feeling that the story stood for something larger than the individual actors involved.
“Certain stories stand for a cause far larger than individual actors, and ‘Daayra’ is one of them,” Prithviraj said.
Kareena also addressed the contrast between her role in ‘Daayra’ and her association with Rohit Shetty's cop universe, where police characters are presented in a larger-than-life commercial setting.
“Every director operates in a different universe,” she said, describing Rohit Shetty's cop universe as “larger-than-life” and Meghna's world as “grounded, realistic, and complex.”
“As an actor, I feel fortunate to straddle both worlds comfortably,” Kareena added.
Meghna said both perspectives ultimately represent different approaches to justice, while Prithviraj noted that people's perceptions can change when an incident moves from being distant to something involving people close to them.
Kareena also spoke about her recent choices and said that after being in the industry for so years, challenging herself as an actor remains important.
She pointed to her desire to explore different characters and credited Meghna's direction for bringing out another shade of her performance.
“I think as an actor, challenge hona bahut zaroori hota hai, especially after 25 years of work,” Kareena said.
She added that playing Ajooni was an honour and that the role represents a different shade in her filmography. 
Coming back to 'Daayra', the film is all set to be released in theatres on September 18.
The film stars Kareena and Prithviraj Sukumaran as cops who face off while navigating the dark and complex world of juvenile crime.
As per the makers, the movie is "inspired by true events."Daayra unfolds in the "aftermath of a crime that grips the nation, sparking widespread outrage, while setting a series of events and 2 investigations in motion.
As the search for answers deepens, two senior police officers, played by Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran, find themselves navigating the same system through different approaches to duty and justice, on opposing sides of a case that challenges the very idea of right and wrong," read a press note.