Ready to rock?

Smmita Thackeray, the very influential bahu of Maharashtra's first political family, is a known name in the Hindi film circle. She's been a conspicuous presence at filmy dos and has produced many a Bollywood films under her banner Rahul Films. It is logical to ask why the glamorous member of Thackeray family, which prides itself on the Marathi cause, has shied away from producing a Marathi film for all these years – her first Hindi film as a producer was Haseena Maan Jayegi (1999). “I always wanted to make a Marathi film...I was waiting for the right kind of script,” she replies, softly.
But Smmita tai, as she is reverentially called, has finally found the right script to back. And not surpisingly, it's a film by Rahul Thackeray, her Canada-returned, trained filmmaker son. Rahul, we discover, always wanted to start his career with a film in his mother tongue, and the fact that his powerful mother is producing his debut, has very little to do with him being the namesake of her production banner, he tells us. “I've studied computer animation, VFX and filmmaking abroad and have made short films that have been circulated in the film festival circuit. When Heyramb Khot, my co-director and I went to aai with the concept of Raada Rox (yes, that's the uber cool name of the film), she genuinely liked it and decided to produce it,” says he.
On her part, Smmita tai says she felt the movie was “different”. “A lot of Marathi movies today are based in rural areas. Raada Rox is a youthful, fun, urbane film every college going youngster will relate to,” says she. This “no-brainer comedy” centering on a gang of five music enthusiasts will release on 8th of April, after the World cup ends, just when the IPL season begins.
The filmmakers are banking on the “oversaturation” of cricket in the media and are going about promoting their film in colleges, malls, targeting youngsters. Their approach to promotion, Heyramb says, will be fresh, like the film itself. “The actors are going to present a little performance before the collegians here,” says the former fashion photographer, informing us about the programme at New Law College, Bharti Vidyapith, Kothrud, where the cast – Sai Tamhankar, Tanvi Parab, Chirag Patil, Uday Nene, Ketan Kshirsagar - filmmakers and the producer are formally meeting the press.
Music is the mainstay of this young film and a great variety has been provided in its 5 song album, Thackeray, herself a keen music lover, informs. “Nakash-Sargam, who've assisted AR Rehman, have composed the music for the film. Others from the Hindi film industry, like Shankar Mahadevan, Sukhwinder Singh, Anu Malik, have also been very forthcoming in helping us. We've also received support from Sunil Shetty, Rajpal Yadav and Juhi Chawla,” Smmita tai shares.
Mommy dearest has obviously thrown her full weight behind her son's pet project. The packaging of the film, naturally, is glossy, Bollywood-style, and the budget, more than that of any average Marathi film, Smmita tai guardedly reveals. “Whichever project I back, I see to it that the quality is uncompromised,” says she. But her job ends there, she asserts. “Aai only tried to explain to us the business aspect of cinema. Creatively, she never interfered,” Rahul says. “He was just a director on the sets of the film, not my son,” is Smmita tai's rejoinder.
But of course, she is not “just” a mother, she's the woman whose surname commands the presence of two gun-wielding security men in the conference room, even as the lady herself is dressed in delicate pink. With the enormous power she wields, Rahul perhaps has only his talent to risk.