Arundhati Nag returns to Marathi cinema after 40 years with Medium Spicy

Actress Arundhati Nag is all set to make a return to Marathi cinema after 40 years with Medium Spicy.

Arundhati Nag, then Arundhati Rao, made her debut in cinema with the historical Marathi film 22 June 1897 (1979).

The title referred to the date on which the Chapekar brothers assassinated WC Rand, Poona's plague commissioner who had riled citizens with his high-handed measures to combat the outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1896.

After 22 June 1897, Arundhati Rao went on to act in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and English films. She married actor-writer-director Shankar Nag, younger brother of the actor Anant Nag and best known to television audiences across India for the serial Malgudi Days (1987) based on the works of RK Narayan. Shankar Nag was killed in a road accident near Davangere on 30 September 1990.

Arundhati Nag will play the character Laxmi Tipnis in Medium Spicy. Speaking about why he thought of Nag, director Mohit Takalkar said in a statement, “While writing the film, the only actor that came to my mind to play Laxmi Tipnis was Arundhati Nag. The character is very progressive and modern. She is intellectual but at the same time sensitive. I fee people will notice her intelligent nature as soon as she enters the film.”

In her sparse acting career, Arundhati Nag has received acclaim for quite a few roles. She is a National award-winner for her role as Vidya Balan’s mother in Paa (2009). She won the Karnataka State Film award for Best Supporting Actress twice for her films Accident (1985) and Jogi (2005).

Sharing her experience of working in Medium Spicy, she said in a statement, “I was sent the script and my character sketch. But to create that character on the sets was real fun. I read the script with Lalit Prabhakar. He had nicely gotten into the skin of his character. I didn’t need to do much because of the presence of a gifted director and got to play the character of a strong woman.”

Apart from Prabhakar, Medium Spicy has a long line of top artistes like Sai Tamhankar, Parna Pethe, Sagar Deshmukh, Neha Joshi and Pushkaraj Chirputkar. The film is produced by Vidhi Kasliwal for Landmarc Films.