“My father was the first one I called to check about gender testing in sports”, says Abhishek Banerjee who plays a lawyer in ZEE5’s Rashmi Rocket

Rashmi Rocket revolves around a village girl who aspires to represent India at the world championship. The sprinter might have become an inspiration back home, but she soon realises the exploitation female athletes face in the name of gender testing under the age-old system of our country. When her body type fails to fall under the conventional feminine cut, she gets banned from the sport after being declared ‘not a woman’. Thus begins her fight against the athletics association to regain her respect and a personal battle to uphold her identity and get back to the race of life.

Taapsee Pannu starrer ZEE5 Original ‘Rashmi Rocket’ has already sparked a lot of excitement among the audience. The interesting trailers have viewers waiting eagerly for the movie to stream on ZEE5. Produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Neha Anand and Pranjal Khandhdiya, written by Nanda Periyasamy, Aniruddha Guha and Kanika Dhillon and directed by Akarsh Khurana, ‘RASHMI ROCKET’ also stars Supriya Pathak, Abhishek Banerjee, Priyanshu Painyuli and Supriya Pilgaonkar.

It’s a lesser-known fact that Abhishek Banerjee who plays the part of a lawyer in the movie didn’t know much about gender testing in sports. The talented actor got to know about it first from his father! Abhishek shares, “Yes, my father is a Paramilitary officer and has served in the CISF and NSG and has played a lot of sports in his professional career. He was the first one I called to ask if he knows anything about gender testing in sports and he told me that this has been going on since a long time and threw some insight on it. He told me that he has read about many athletes going through suffering and pain because of this and he also gave me some names who fought their case in court and won against the association.

So, that really gave me courage because I realised that this is a story which has been played in real life many many times and now it's time for the world to see and hear these stories. It's time for the people to see what goes behind the scenes of a success story which is usually celebrated after a win but before the win, there are many struggles that an athlete has to endure and very few people know about it. I think very few people want to talk about the struggles as everybody only wants to talk about the glory and Rashmi Rocket is a great film as it talks about all these things.”

The movie is based on Rashmi, an incredibly fast runner who dreams of crossing the finish line as an athlete and making a mark for her country. However, she soon understands that the race to the finish line has multiple obstacles, and what seems like an athletic competition turns into her personal battle for respect, honour, and her individual identity. The central topic of the movie is gender testing in sports.

The movie is set to premiere on ZEE5 on 15th October