After directing the critically acclaimed dark social drama Kaccha Limbu (2017), about a middle-aged couple struggling to cope with a teenage son with an intellectual disability, and the hit historical drama Hirkani (2019), based on a story from the 17th century of a mother's valiant effort to reach her hungry child in time, actor-director Prasad Oak is now ready with his third directorial venture Chandramukhi (2022), based on author Vishwas Patil's novel of the same name.
Asked about his decision to make a film on a subject that deals with the folk art form tamasha and politics, Oak said, "Kaccha Limbu, my first film, won many awards, including the National award, but it didn't become commercially successful.
"My second film Hirkani became a super hit and ran for many weeks, but for some reason, it didn't get much recognition from critics nor did it win many awards.
"So I thought let's achieve both things with my next project. For that we put together a team of talented artistes like our music composers Ajay-Atul, Vishwas Patil, our script-writer Chinmay Mandlekar, the entire cast and a producer who gave me complete freedom."
Chandramukhi’s screenplay and dialogues have been written by actor-writer Mandlekar who had also written the screenplay for Oak’s Hirkani (2019).
On collaborating with Mandlekar again, Oak said, "Though the [pandemic-induced] lockdowns caused many issues, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for my friend and our film's screenplay writer Chinmay Mandlekar. He would tell me that he would complete a script in two months, but somehow it would take him six months. This time, he had ample time to work on the script, so I'm sure he has done his best work with Chandramukhi."
Starring Amruta Khanvilkar and Addinath Kothare, and produced by Planet Marathi and Golden Ratio Films, Chandramukhi is slated for release on 29 April.