Yesteryear stars Amol Palekar and Sharmila Tagore are back together after three decades. They have formerly worked together in a Bengali film “Mother’ in the late 70s. “It was such a blockbuster then that even today people of Bengal remember me for that film. So when I asked Sharmila Tagore about this film she said you did the film of my language, now I will do it in yours,” he reminisces.
The super hit duo is coming back in a Marathi film “Samantar’ after three decade. The film is also being directed and produce by Palekar. “When I was narrated the story, I instantly said I don’t know when we are making the film, but I certainly know that I am doing the role. It is multi-layered character and once again, I would get to portray varied range of emotions. I don’t think anyone else can do the role better than me,” says the not-so-modest actor.
Amol is known to have made brilliant films in Hindi, as well as in Marathi. When asked in-spite of having the yesteryear bong beauty of Hindi cinema and him in the film, why he chose to script the film in Marathi? “When I first heard the script I was determined to make it in Marathi, as every script has its own demands like location, cultural context or whether it should have songs in it and if yes, then what kinds of songs etc… so language is also one of the demand of this script.”

The huge star-cast film, though made in regional language, will be distributed all over the country. “Earlier too, when I made a film in Marathi with a big star-cast and distributed it all over the country, I was constantly asked that why did I made the film in Marathi, when I have big stars in it, and also am I distributing it largely because I have big stars in it? I believe every film has its audience everywhere, irrespective of language. We degrade calling Marathi, or any vernacular cinema as regional films. We should not look down upon them, in fact we should be proud to have films in 21 languages, which capture their respective cultures and are appreciated by people of all the regions,” elucidates the erstwhile boy-next-door of Hindi cinema.
Thirty-year-old super hit duo of east is set to re-kindle the same magic with Samantar.
-Deepa Mishra/ Sampurn Media