Mukta Barve and I would take our time on sets of Y: Nandu Madhav

Mukta Barve and Nandu Madhav play the protagonist and antagonist in Dr Ajit Wadikar’s Marathi movie Y, which was released a week ago. However, it is not common knowledge that the artistes had shared the screen a long time ago in a television show when Barve was a newcomer. 

“After that, we never worked together,” Madhav told Cinestaan.com. “All the actors assembled in this film know how to work hard and give various shades to their characters. Mukta is also one such artiste who does her homework before performing. There is a nice give-and-take in our scenes. We discuss matters and take our time on sets.” 

The actor credits Dr Ajit Wadikar for this. “It is because the director gave us space that we were able to discuss, rehearse and try different ways of enacting a scene,” he said. 

Y is a medical thriller about female infanticide where Madhav plays a radiologist. The story has various sub-plots and layers. It is the depth of the story that attracted Madhav to the project. 

Y review: Mukta Barve-starrer exposes a ghastly social evil in an unflinching manner

“The execution of the story was impressive,” he said. “One story leads to the other and it continues that way. A lot of people are involved in the story. There are different layers and incidents that are linked.” 

In an interview with Cinestaan.com in 2018, filmmaker Abhijeet Deshpande revealed that his film Ani… Dr Kashinath Ghanekar (2018) was shot for over 50 days and people were surprised to hear of a Marathi film being shot for such a long period. 

Interestingly, Wadikar shot Y over more than 100 days. “Anyone who hears that a Marathi film was shot over 109 days will raise their eyebrows,” said Madhav. “But this was needed here. Everyone, including the producer, knows that not a single day was wasted. There were no obstacles that forced us to halt the shoot. When we showed the film to some distributors, they could also make out that it was shot over a long duration.” 

The actor has a series of projects in the pipeline. His upcoming film Aapdi Thapdi also stars Barve along with Shreyas Talpade. “It was directed by Anand Karir,” said Madhav. “He is an ad filmmaker, who is making his film debut. I am currently shooting for a Hindi web-series. I can’t reveal the name right now. The shoot is currently on hold because of this film’s promotions. I have also signed up for a Marathi film and web-series. I will start shooting for them soon.”