Was a bit nervous while acting in Preetam, says Pranav Raorane

Pranav Raorane plays the title role in the upcoming romantic drama Preetam.

Speaking about his character, an introvert, at a media interaction, Raorane recently said, "Preetam is a simple guy who has to give up his studies and bear the brunt of household responsibilities. He doesn't have any friends in the village and because of his lanky figure and not so good-looking face, people, especially guys from his age group, always make fun of him. One day, an extremely beautiful and highly educated girl comes to stay in the village. The film is about how her arrival changes Preetam's life."

The film marks the directorial debut of Kerala-based ad filmmaker Sijo Rocky. Asked about whether they faced any communication problem because of the language barrier, Raorane said, "Yes, initially we had problems communicating with each other. Forget Marathi, Sijo doesn't even understand Hindi properly. And most of the dialogues in our films were in Malvani so there was no question of him understanding anything about the dialogue. But thankfully we had a script supervisor Sujit Kurup, who was functioning as a translator."

Initially, the makers wanted to make this film in Malayalam but later they opted for Marathi. "The main reason they made this film in Marathi and not in Malayalam was that our film revolves around a less educated guy who is struggling to make ends meets but in Kerala they have almost 100% literacy. Also, the culture of the Konkan region is quite similar to Kerala hence the story was shifted there."

This is the first time Raorane has acted in a full-fledged love story and the actor feels that his role was challenging. "I'm quite comfortable doing comedic or serious roles but doing a love story is a completely different ballgame altogether. I was quite nervous, to be honest. Also, makers had cast the extremely beautiful Nakshtra Medhekar as my heroine. She really supported me a lot in those romantic scenes. I remember one funny incident from the shoot of our romantic song 'Tuzya Rupacha Chandana'. I was asked to look at the camera romantically, but I just couldn't do it. So after a few retakes, the team came up with a unique idea and attached a photo of my wife to the camera and finally I made the right expression ( laughs)."

This is Raorane's second lead role after last year's Aatpadi Nights (2019). Raorane, who doesn't fit into the traditional definition of a hero, feels that things are finally changing for him. "I'm finally getting roles that are not stereotypically based on my physique. I'm doing a Marathi film called One Missed Call where play the lead role again. There is another film called Pichkaari. I'm also doing a small Hindi film. It's a 90-minute film and I'm again playing the lead role," he said.