Cast, crew debuts with Manjrekar

Director Mahesh Manjrekar has associated his next film with an online talent portal, chooses 20 fresh faces for the upcoming romantic comedy.

Actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar, who has created a niche for himself with films based on serious issues, is set for a fully commercial romantic comedy as his next venture. He has associated with the talent-hunt portal Talenttube to look for people for the film, and surprisingly the entire cast and crew will comprise fresh faces.

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“This is a film about growing up and coming of age. I chose this subject to feature new talent. That’s when Talenttube came along,” says Manjrekar. Vinod G Nair, the co-owner of Talenttube says, “The music alone will generate around 20 opportunities. Besides that, there will be around 16 to 20 acting roles in the film. So just a single film can generate around 50 opportunities.”

When asked about how different it would be from Mahesh Bhatt’s initiative to choose lead pairs through YouTube for his 1990 hit Aashiqui’s sequel, Manjrekar says, “What Mahesh Bhatt is doing is somewhat similar, but in scale and size it’s nowhere close to what Talenttube is. Aashiqui 2 is looking for two people for the lead pair while Talenttube will be looking for talents from all categories of performing art.”

Would it be easy to bring such a range of talent on the same page to make the film? “It is not going to be an easy task but there is an advantage. Although they would not be complete novices, they will come without prior baggage and will be open to learning and adapting to my style,” Manjrekar says. The film is set to go on the floors this November.