Monsoon Football shows even homemakers deserve their space, says producer Shalini Thackeray

Films with female central characters, often described quaintly in Indian media reports as 'woman-oriented (sic)' films, are being made in greater numbers over the past decade. Even so, director Milind Ukey’s Marathi film Monsoon Football has an unusual story of a group of homemakers who set up their own football club to create an identity for themselves. The film is being produced under the banner of Cinemantra Entertainment, headed by Shalini Thackeray.

“The film is based on the question they [homemakers] are always asked: so what do you do the whole day? It shows that we take housewives for granted,” Thackeray said during an exclusive conversation with Cinestaan.com.

The film stars Chak De! India (2007) girls Sagarika Ghatge, Vidya Malvade, Seema Azmi and Chitrashi Rawat as four among the homemakers in the film, along with the likes of Delnaaz Irani and Pritam Kagne.

Explaining, she said, “Housewives deserve their space, they work 24 hours and get no breaks. So, they form a football team just as an outlet for their space. The film revolves around this. The film is Monsoon Football, so it will be released in the monsoon.” 

Earlier, Thackeray had produced the Marathi blockbuster Lai Bhaari (2014) and the dark, realistic Hindi drama Love Sonia (2018), both very different films. Asked if she considers the box-office potential of a story or goes purely by the content, she said, “It has to be a balance. If you make the kind of content nobody goes to watch, it doesn’t make sense. It has to be the kind of content we are convinced about.

"I am sure [about Monsoon Football] that people will come to see it. We were very convinced about Lai Bhaari. Right from the first day we were convinced that people will accept it and come for it. It had all the masala.”

Thackeray is also considering the various OTT platforms when it comes to taking up projects. “Love Sonia was an experiment for us. But we were convinced about the content. We knew that even if it does not earn big at the box office, it will be accepted on other platforms. It’s playing on Hotstar now,” she said.

Speaking about OTT platforms, Thackeray said her company is also foraying into the web-series format. “We are already working on it," she said. "Very soon our shoots will start. These are two different web-series in Marathi and Hindi.”