Rajesh Pinjani, director of Baboo Band Baaja, dies of heart attack

Marathi filmmaker Rajesh Pinjani died of a heart attack in Pune on Tuesday evening. He was in his fifties.

Pinjani is known for helming the acclaimed Marathi film Baboo Band Baaja (2012), which starred Milind Shinde, Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar and child actor Vivek Chabukswar. 

Varadkar took to Facebook to pay tribute to the filmmaker. She wrote, “A tragic incident. National award-winning director respected Rajesh Pinjani is not with us due to acute myocardial information (heart attack). With a heavy heart RIP.” 

Chabukswar also mourned the loss of Pinjani in a Facebook post, mentioning in detail the impact the filmmaker and his project had made on his life.

Baboo Band Baaja, which is being streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, won the National Film Awards for Best Debut Film of a Director [Pinjani], Best Actress [Varadkar] and Best Child Artist [Chabukswar]. The film revolves around a beleaguered musical band in rural Maharashtra and its attempts to make ends meet. 

Pinjani didn’t make any feature film following Baboo Band Baaja. He was involved as a consulting producer in Kedar Gaikwad’s Marathi movie Online Binline (2015), which starred Hemant Dhome, Siddharth Chandekar and Rutuja Shinde. In recent years, he was involved in making advertisement films.