Sairat Director Nagaraj Manjule Opens Up In A Rare Interview

Sairat, as we all know, is  a landmark in Indian cinema.Marathi cinema’s most successful product to date, it spawned  a series of attacks on  Nagaraj from an estranged wife who claimed ill-treatment and a whole lot of monetary compensation.

True to his  personality Nagaraj went back  into his shell.

“To be honest I couldn’t enjoy the success of Sairat, nor understand its impact fully, as I was thrown into the deep-end  of  the ocean, and asked to swim.I couldn’t even understand what was going on. I chose not to speak as  I didn’t want to hurt those who were hurting me,” says the softspoken director .

Nagaraj is now ready to direct his third  film (he directed the highly-acclaimed Marathi film Fandry before Sairat) and his first in Hindi with Amitabh Bachchan in  the lead.

Sairat in  the meanwhile has been acquired  for a Hindi remake by producer Karan Johar. The film will feature Sridevi’s daughter Jahanvi and Shahid kapoor’s brother Ishaan and will be directed by Shashank Khaitan.

Nagaraj says he has absolutely no regrets about not doing the remake of Sairat. “I have many more stories to tell. And I’d rather tell a fresh story than go back to what I’ve already done. The people who  are remaking Sairat in Hindi are responsible reputed entities. I am sure they would do something totally fresh and exciting with Sairat.”

Like adding two rooms to the Taj Mahal?

Laughs Nagaraj, “I don’t think it would be anything like that.We don’t add rooms to the Taj Mahal. But someone else can build another Taj Mahal. As far as I am concerned I am done with Sairat. I’d not want to revisit it any other language.”

​Nagraj now gets ready to  direct  Amitabh Bachchan. “I wouldn’t like to say much on that right now, except it is  a dream come true to direct Bachchan Saab. I hope I can do justice to his presence in my film.”​