Picture perfect

Villagers of Menawali and Pasarni say film shootings have helped them preserve their centuries-old wadas

Prabhakar Gokhale wont let the filmwallahs inside his traditional Maharashtrian home,called wada,but this time,he has let them shoot at the Dholya Ganpati Mandir. Gokhale,whose family owns the mandir and three adjoining wadas,says the last time he let out his wada for a movie shooting,they turned the whole house upside down. For days together,we were confined to a few rooms in our house. So this time,we let them shoot only at the temple and the ghats, says Gokhale.

While Gokhale likes to guard his space,many in Menawali and Pasarnitwo villages in Wai taluka where filmmakers have flocked to in the last decadesay movie shootings have,in fact,given their temples and traditional homes a new lease of life.

They say maintaining the centuries-old wadas and temples is expensive and they are only too happy that filmmakers spruce up the wadas,ghats and the temples for the shooting. Villagers say that had it not been for the steady stream of filmmakers who have been flocking to their villages for the last decade,many of them would have long converted their wadas into apartments instead of spending lakhs on preserving them. Films such as Gangajal and Omkara were shot in these villages.

Savitri Pawar,a resident of Menawali,says the ghats near the temples are cleaned up only when a film crew comes to the village. Filmmakers get their own staff to clean the steps leading to the ghat and the adjoining areas. Villagers dirty the place and nobody bothers to clean it, she says.

Ashok Phadnavees,whose family owns the Nana Phadnavees wada in Pasarni village,says the trend is to preserve the family wadas. My brother and I live in Pune with our families. Twice every week we go to Pasarni. Every six months,we engage people to look into the repair and restoration needs of the wada. Over the last three years,we have spent about

Rs 40 lakh on restoration work. Our wada and the temple were built in 1707 and since then,five generations have devoted themselves to the upkeep of the ancestral property, he says.

The Meneshwar temple has a 750-kg bell,dated 1707,that Chinnaji Appa,Bajirao Is brother,got from the Portuguese after they were defeated.

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Sachin Date,a civil engineer and structural designer,who helps Phadnavees with the restoration work,says lending wadas for movie shootings ensures they are kept in good shape. The wadas that are not repaired regularly are becoming structurally weak. The ancient Maratha architects used slaked lime as the binding material. So we try to use slaked lime with puzzolana to retain such qualities, says Date.