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Mehar Gujral Brings Maddie's Secret to Life Through Sound
Gujral guides the film through its final sound edit and mix, helping shape a story that moves between sharp comedy, satire, and vulnerability.
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Staff Reporter - Mon, 29, Jun 2026
- 07:43 EDT
- 56
Mehar Gujral / Mehar Gujral via LinkedIn
Post producer Mehar Gujral's latest cinematic venture, 'Maddie's Secret', hit theatres in the United States on June 19.
Directed by comedian John Early, marking his directorial debut, the film follows Maddie, a food influencer who secretly struggles with an eating disorder as she navigates fame, close friendships, and childhood trauma.
A key part of the film's ongoing success can be attributed to Gujral who played a key role in shaping every laugh, pause, and quiet emotional beat, each a result of hundreds of creative decisions made by Gujral and her team.
Gujral holds a master's degree in documentary filmmaking from New York University. Born in India, she grew up across Chandigarh, Ontario, and New Jersey before establishing herself in New York's independent film industry.
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Since 2023, she has served as an in-house producer at Gigantic Studios, managing post-production for scripted and nonfiction films, television series, short-form content, and commercial projects. Earlier, she worked in Mumbai as an assistant on the Hindi anthology series Zindagi In Short, now streaming on Netflix.
In addition to her studio work, Gujral screens films for festivals, recently served on the jury of the ReelAbilities Film Festival, and is producing a documentary short on Darjeeling tea with support from the New York Emmys Foundation and the South Asian Journalists Association.
Working from New York City's Gigantic Studios, Gujral guided the film through its final sound edit and mix, helping shape a story that moves between sharp comedy, satire, and vulnerability.
"There was one dance class sequence that we kept coming back to because it walked a delicate line between humor and heartbreak, and every tiny adjustment changed how the scene played,” Gujral said talking about her work.
She continued, "We spent days refining the relationship between the score, sound design, foley, loop group, and even ADR breathing until everything clicked. It was a real team effort to bring director John Early's vision to life, and it’s the kind of work most people might not notice, but they’ll feel it. Those kinds of creative challenges are exactly why I love working on independent films."
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before opening in U.S. theaters. It has become one of the summer's breakout independent releases, earning the IFC Center's biggest opening weekend in more than two years.
The film has also drawn widespread critical acclaim, with IndieWire calling it "an extremely accomplished debut and one of the boldest American movies I have seen in years."
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