Mar 11: In a first of its kind event in the Marathi cinema, DAR Motion Pictures, the filmed entertainment division of DAR Media Private Limited, in association with acclaimed actor – director Mahesh Manjrekar, today symbolically unveiled the first look of their maiden Marathi production ‘Lalbaug Parel’ in the heart of Mumbai. The film has been shot simultaneously in Hindi and Marathi with two separate negatives, and is slated to release on a 9th April 2010. The Hindi version of the film is titled ‘City of Gold – Mumbai 1982: Ek Ankahi Kahani’ and was unveiled last month.

The eclectic evening, which featured both a highly charged emotional atmosphere as well as some really well received entertainment, featured the unveiling of a mainstream full-length feature film, in the presence of over 5000 mill workers, based completely on their own story, a fact that was further highlighted when writer-director Mahesh Manjrekar and Producer of the movie Arun Rangachari refused to themselves symbolically unveil the look of the movie. Instead they insisted on actual representatives of the mill workers, called on from the crowd, to perform this milestone ceremony.

Also present at the event were and the entire cast of the film including Satish Kaushik, Seema Biswas, Siddharth Jadhav, Ankush Chaudhary, Sachin Khedekar, Vinay Apte, Karan Patel, Sameer Dharmadhikari as well as Vineet Kumar Singh, Shashank Shende, Veena Jhamkar, Kashmera Shah, and Anusha Dandekar, all members of the movies crew including story, screenplay and script writer noted playwright and journalist Jayant Pawar, Director of Photography Ajit Reddy, Music Directors Ajit Parab and Sameer Mhatre, and renowned personalities from Mumbai including distinguished members of public society, as well as, leading members of the film and theatre fraternity.

The event started with a very emotional trip down memory lane when at first two women representatives from the mills, followed by Shri Y. C. Pawar, retired joint commissioner of Police, reminisced the glorious era of cotton mill lands that once ruled Mumbai and then how things changed overnight with the commencement of what has now famously come to be known as the Great Mumbai Mill Strike of 1982. Addressing the august gathering of mill workers and distinguished guests, Sri Datta Iswalkar, leader of the Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti said that the movie was indeed a novel platform for creating awareness about their significant contribution towards the shaping of today’s prosperous Mumbai, the forgotten story - even 28 years post the strike - of the grave injustice bestowed upon the mill workers, and about their need for basic housing and areas of employment, not fancy towers and malls. Where the speeches touched the hearts of all present and helped deliver the message of the movie, the title and look of the film were unveiled in a very novel way that was most definitely a first in Marathi cinema.

Mahesh engaged popular Marathi film and theatre actor Bharat Jadhav in an impromptu Q&A probing him for the reason of his presence on the dais of a film launch of which he was not even part of. To which Bharat replied that he belongs from the mills and was even part of the very successful Marathi play by Jayant on the same subject ‘Adhantar’. ‘Lalbaug Parel’ was as much his film as it was of anyone else, especially the millworkers and the people of Maharashtra. While this friendly sparring by Mahesh and Bharat on stage resulted in a highly innovative unveil of the title of the film the audiences were left absolutely spell bound by the highly stylized and hard-hitting first look of the film, relayed through a five minute AV. The evening also featured some light entertainment with a few members of the cast, including Kranti Redkar and Siddarth Jadhav, along with other key Marathi actors, performing a few dance routines to popular and representative Marathi songs.

Speaking about the association with the movie Arun Rangachari, Chairman DAR Capital Group said, “DAR Motion Pictures aims to develop bench-mark creative concepts, in the domain of both mainstream Hindi as well as regional cinema. This is well reflected in our choice of really good content-driven subjects such as ‘Lalbaug Parel’ and visionary directors such as Mahesh. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mahesh and his team for bringing to life this magnificent movie. The movie indeed is a collaborative effort in the true sense of the word and all of us at DAR are extremely happy with the way this movie has shaped up. This definitely is by and far one of the best films that Mahesh has made we are sure it is going to emerge as one of the more defining movies of the year.”

The unveiled look of ‘Lalbaug Parel’ reveals a crisp, stylized and hard hitting film based on the mill strike of 1982 and the trials and tribulations of a mill-worker’s family affected by it. The film is a take-no-prisoners account and portrayal of the politico-socio environment existing during the early eighties and realistically depicts the birth of the true underbelly of organized crime in

‘Lalbaug Parel’ will most definitely be yet another blockbuster from maverick filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar.

Commenting on his vision for the movie, Mahesh Manjrekar said: “Creativity doesn’t have a timeline. I’ve been toying with the idea of making ‘Lalbaug Parel’ for over three years now. Furthermore, the entire team of this movie believed that the next generation needs to know the real story behind the birth of a city now known to them as the city of opportunities, Mumbai. What better way than bringing the voices that made the real Mumbai come together and narrate the truth. The film is based on the trials and tribulations that mill workers in Mumbai faced during the 1980s.

“Having grown up in Wadala - the Land of Mills and having, since childhood, closely observed the entire mill universe and the lives of ‘a common mill worker’ within it, this subject is not only close to my heart, but is also one of the most exciting and challenging subjects I have worked on till date. Today I can say that my hard work and efforts have paid off. The expressions on the faces of the audience gathered today are not just a clear vindication of my efforts but also mirror the fate of my movie,” added Mahesh.

‘Lalbaug Parel’ which portrays the story of those long-forgotten masses – not only explores the misery of these mill workers narrated through the story of one such family, the politico-socio environment existing during the early eighties but also realistically depicts the birth of the true underbelly of organized crime in Mumbai. In addition to this film DAR has also developed a production slate of at least 10 other film projects, several of them in multiple languages through 2012. In addition DAR plans to launch a filmfund in the second half of 2010 that will focus on both Hindi and regional cinema.