After winning the National Award recently (special mention category) for his 2020 Marathi film Lata Bhagwan Kare, director Naveen Deshaboina was all geared to make a sequel, titled Marathon, on the 60-year-old woman who won a marathon to earn money for her husband, Bhagwan Kare’s medical expenses.
But a couple of days ago, Bhagwan Kare passed away, leaving the film unit in shock.
Lata had played herself in the first part, and so had Bhagwan. Just when the real-life couple was all set for an encore in the sequel, the 72-year-old succumbed to Covid-19. “Lataji was literally inconsolable when I spoke to her on Thursday,” says director Naveen.
“Bhagwanji’s keenness to learn was a great quality that inspired me,” says the director, revealing that the septuagenarian had been learning Telugu for the sequel.
Naveen Deshaboina (centre) with Lata and Bhagwan Kare
“I met him a couple of weeks back and he was practising Telugu. He also received training in acting, and we have done a few acting workshops to add more emotion to his character in the sequel. In fact, he, along with Lataji, also practised dubbing while we were working on our pre-production. Both of them were very excited about working on the sequel,” says the director.
“In the first part, working with him was a pleasant experience; Bhagwanji used to ask logical questions during the script discussion sessions, and that prompted us to tightened loose ends,” recalls the director.
The couple was apparently initially not interested in acting, and did not believe it when the director approached them to make a film on them. It took great effort from the director to convince Lata and Bhagwan to play themselves in the movie. The sequel was supposed to go on the floors at a village 35kms away from Pune in April. But the lockdown in Maharashtra delayed the film.
While Sonali Kulkarni was been finalised for the Hindi version, Lata and Bhagwan would have played themselves in the Telugu version. With Bhagwan’s demise, the project has been temporarily put on hold.
“I don’t know if Lataji will accept someone else as her on-screen husband. She too is mourning the loss of her husband. But Lataji is quite a character because when I spoke to her to console, she in turn, is telling me not to worry about the film. She also said that she will manage to come back and commence shooting soon. She’s truly an amazing woman,” he adds.
