Soni (film)

Soni is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Ivan Ayr. Produced by Kimsi Singh and Kartikeya Narayan Singh, the film stars Geetika Vidya Ohlyan and Saloni Batra in the lead roles. It was written by Ayr and Kislay and chronicles the life of police officer Soni (Ohlyan) and her superintendent in Delhi Police Kalpana (Batra), who deal with crimes against women in the city.

The idea for Soni occurred to Ayr in 2014 when he was reading that Delhi was being put under scrutiny for not being safe for women, especially after the 2012 gang rape case. Ayr read several articles and interviews about the Delhi police and was interested in woman officers' reactions to cases of sexual violence. He spent time with several Delhi police personnel and observed their daily routine. Pre-production started in November 2016 and Ayr finished the script in January 2017 and the film was shot for 24 days in Delhi in February. David Bolen served as the director of photography while Ayr and Gurvinder Singh edited the film.

Soni premiered in the Orizzonti (Horizons) section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival, receiving a standing ovation. The film was also screened at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival, the 2018 MAMI Film Festival, and the Pingyao International Film Festival, where it won the Best Film award and a cash prize of $20,000, half of which went to fund development of the director's next project. The other half was provided to the film's distributor in China. Ayr received a special mention for "Achievement in Directing" for the film at the 2018 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The film was released on 18 January 2019 on Netflix to critical acclaim with particular praise for its direction and the performances.