Film on Pu La Deshpande

The works of PL Deshpande, a literary personality of Maharashtra, will soon be made into a film, said filmmaker Kshtiij Zarapkar.

The works of PL Deshpande, a literary personality of Maharashtra, will soon be made into a film, said filmmaker Kshtiij Zarapkar.

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The film, Golaberij, is based on 27 books, three documentaries and five feature films with which Deshpande was associated.

“It is not a biopic,” said Zarapkar, who has acted and scripted several Marathi plays and serials. “It is through the writer’s work that we get a glimpse of his life and so we wanted to bring all his work, including his essays, to the screen.”

Several actors such as Mohan Agashe, Dilip Prabhawalkar and Subodh Bhave, who essayed Bal Gandharva’s role in the recent film, will be associated with the project. The film is expected to be released by January 2012, the director said. It will be made on a budget of a little more than Rs 2 crore.

The idea was conceived more than three years ago when the director made a similar attempt on stage with Suyog, a theatre production house. “We put together a show of 45 minute as a tribute for Deshpande’s death anniversary. Following the response, we felt we could something bigger and this film worked out.”

A website on the works of PL Deshpande (www.puladeshpande.org) was inaugurated by Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray last week. Developed by Prabodhan, a cultural organisation in Goregaon, the website has biographical details, pictures and essays, poems and lyrics of his songs.