“To Kill a Tiger,” currently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, was acquired by Netflix, which will launch the film worldwide, the streamer announced Saturday.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas also joined the project from director Nisha Pahuja as an executive producer.
The feature film tells the story of a 13-year-old survivor of sexual assault. The movie explores masculinity in India as a father, Ranjit, struggles to get justice for his daughter through his nation’s legal system. Conviction rates for rape in India are below 30% and Ranjit’s support for his daughter is unusual in the culture.
Chopra Jonas has been an advocate for the film since it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in 2022, according to a statement announcing her coming on to the project. The documentary is set in the same Indian state in which Chopra Jonas was born.
Pahuja was previously Emmy-nominated for her 2014 documentary “The World Before Her.” This is her first Oscar nomination.
The movie was released theatrically, following its festival circuit run, on Oct. 20, 2023. It was also rereleased following its Oscar nomination on Feb. 9.
“India is not a culture that is founded on [serving] the individual. It’s a culture that’s very much based in community, family,” Pahuja previously told TheWrap. “So that’s why it was considered a viable option, to maintain the harmony and the peace, to marry her to one of her rapists. I’m not saying that’s an attitude that’s prevalent in [all of] India. But in that particular community, that was the solution.”
The film’s executive producers also include Dev Patel, Mindy Kaling, Rupi Kaur, Andy Cohen, Anita Lee, Atul Gawande, Andrew Dragoumis, Shivani Rawat, Mona Sinha (Equality Now), Mala Gaonkar (Surgo Foundation), Regina Scully, Anita Bhatia, Niraj Bhatia, Deepa Mehta and others.
“To Kill a Tiger” is a Notice Pictures Production in coproduction with The National Film Board of Canada, with the participation of Telefilm Canada and the Rogers Group of Funds through the Theatrical Documentary Program.
