I always wanted Avadhoot Gupte to compose songs for Pandu, says Viju Mane

The music of filmmaker Viju Mane's comedy film Pandu was launched at an event at Red Bulb Studios in Andheri, Mumbai on Wednesday.

The entire cast and crew, including music composer Avadhoot Gupte and artistes Bhalchandra Kadam, Kushal Badrike and Sonalee Kulkarni, were present.

Mane had decided to approach Gupte, one of the most prominent music composers in the Marathi film industry, as music plays an important part in the film. "I always wanted Avadhoot Gupte for the music of Pandu and fortunately, Mangesh Kulkarni and Ashwin Patil of Zee Studios had the same idea. I wanted songs that are full of energy but at the same time soothing to the ears. And I'm sure Avdhoot Gupte's music is not just soothing but unforgettable," the director said.

The film has five songs and, according to Gupte, bringing them into being was daunting. "When director Viju Mane narrated the concept of this film, I immediately started working on the film's music. 'Dada Parat Ya Na' was the first song I composed. It was a very challenging task because each song had to be of a different musical genre. Luckily I had the company of talented lyricists like Sameer Samant and Vaibhav Joshi along with great singers like Vaishali Samant and Adarsh Shinde. Thanks to the contribution of all of them, all these songs turned out to be really good," the maestro said.

Zee Studio's business head Mangesh Kulkarni zeroed in on Pandu to be the first film to be released after theatres were reopened in Maharashtra last month. "In the last two years, we all have gone through a lot. Now the situation is slowly changing. So we are bringing Pandu to relieve the stress of the audience and to bring a smile back on the audience's face," he said.

Pandu which is a tribute to the yesteryear Marathi star and filmmaker Dada Kondke. is scheduled to be released in cinemas on 3 December 2021.