The hardest workers are often the luckiest, goes the old adage. With The Zoya Factor (2019), director Abhishek Sharma seeks to explore this contrast between luck and hard work with a lot of humour, and India's favourite pastime, cricket, thrown in good measure.
The film features Sonam Kapoor Ahuja as the new 'lucky' mascot Zoya Solanki taking the Indian cricket team to new highs, while Dulquer Salmaan plays the captain who is still skeptical of all things charming.
The trailer turns back to the moment of 25 June 1983, the moment India won its first cricket World Cup, and also happens to be Zoya Solanki's day of birth. The coincidence is strong enough for Zoya's father (Sanjay Kapoor) to remark that the girl's luck will turn her world-famous. That does not come to be as Zoya struggles with the usual lows of an adult, suffering break ups and stagnation at the job.
The turn comes when she is sent by her ad agency to cover the Indian cricket team, whose captain Nikhil Khoda (Dulquer Salmaan) is going through a bleak patch.
Slowly, the luck turns, and the mania around Zoya escalates to another level. While Zoya gets to live the high of her life, this puts her in conflict with her love, the skeptical Indian cricket captain.
The trailer does not hold back any secrets to the narrative, but that is obvious. Adapted from Anuja Chauhan's bestselling book of the same name, The Zoya Factor is the first time Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Dulquer Salmaan are teaming up.
While the actress brings on the naive, charming young girl fairly well, Dulquer has the presence of a new-age media savvy Indian cricket captain. The likeness to current Indian captain, Virat Kohli, and his own connections to cinema through his wife Anushka Sharma, seem too true and coincidental.
Dulquer will mark his second Hindi feature after Karwaan (2018) with this venture, and the actor looks to have gained a better grasp on Hindi with this one.
The trailer offers the promise of a quirky, funny, and light-hearted take on the concept of luck and charm that is often prevalent in India.
The Zoya Factor is set to release in theatres on 20 September.