Composing a lavni is never a challenge for Marathi boys, says Ajay Gogavale on Chandramukhi

Prasad Oak's third directorial venture, Chandramukhi (2022), is one of the more awaited Marathi films of the year. It stars Amruta Khanvilkar and Addinath Kothare, but the biggest talking point of the film has to be its musical score, composed by the popular duo Ajay-Atul.

The film marks the composer brothers' return to Marathi cinema after three years. Their previous Marathi film was Riteish Deshmukh's Mauli (2018).

What makes Chandramukhi more special is that the film sees them return to the tamasha genre after Natrang (2010), one of their career-defining film albums.

Asked about composing tamasha numbers after 12 years, Ajay Gogavale said, "Honestly, we get surprised when people ask whether composing a lavni is a big challenge. If they had asked how challenging it was to compose a symphony or a jazz number, that would make sense, because we never [formally] learnt music. But composing a lavni cannot be a challenge for Marathi boys! It's in our blood."

Talking about the film's music, Atul Gogavale added, "The film has six songs and we have tried to do something unique for each, both in terms of the composition and the sound."

Planet Marathi founder Akshay Bardapurkar, who has produced Chandramukhi, was also excited to collaborate with the composers. "I'm glad that the great music directors Ajay and Atul came on board," he said. "What I experienced while sitting with them to discuss the film was something unheard of for me. They are mavericks."

The producer revealed his plan to release videos of the making of the songs in the film. "They have already proved their mettle with all of their previous projects like Sairat (2016), and just like their previous films, this one's songs are also special and royal," he said.

Based on Vishwas Patil's novel of the same name, Chandramukhi is slated to be released in cinema halls on 29 April, when it goes up against Tiger Shroff's Heropanti 2 (2022) and Ajay Devgn's Runway 34 (2022).

Correction, 8:10pm: An unconnected image was used in an earlier version of this report.