Family connection

Ajinkya Deo is excited about directing his parents,veteran actors Seema and Ramesh Deo,in his maiden directorial venture Jeta
“I’m working with my parents after over two decades. We had last worked together in Sarja in 1988. Later,I acted with aai (mother Seema Deo) in Kunku in 1993; before that,baba (father Ramesh Deo) directed both of us in Jeeva Sakha. That was in 1992. Vasudev Balwant Phadke,made under our banner Ramesh Deo Productions (RDP),had my father and me acting in it. This was in 2007,” actor-turned-director Ajinkya Deo says. His decision to take up direction with Jeta was mainly because of his mother who was away from acting over 14 years. She had enjoyed her break as long as Ajinkya’s and his brother Abhinay Deo’s kids were young. “Now that they are grown up and on their own,my mother was feeling lonely and wanted to get back to work. She had two conditions however. One,that the film should be our own and second,that she would work under her son’s direction only,” explains Ajinkya. But since Abhinay was busy working on commercials,Aamir Khan’s and Farhan Akhtar’s films,he told his mother to convince his older brother to venture into direction. “It was mother’s zid that had me giving a nod to the project. And I feel really lucky to have directed my parents in my directorial debut. However,I had my friend Amol Shetge’s help as he has co-directed the film,” says the artiste,who has acted in over 90 films in Marathi and Hindi. he admits that he learnt a lot about filmmaking along the way.

The story of the film was on his mind for over 15 years as it was triggered off from an incident that occurred in their neighbourhood when they were staying at Juhu. Narrating the incident that happened one night,Ajinkya says that his father had just returned from a shoot and the entire family was sitting on the terrace after dinner when they heard a lady shouting. They saw that a man was dragging a woman by her hair on the street below and hitting her. “In those days,Juhu Koliwada was notorious for its anti-social elements. Lot of illegal activities would happen at night. We saw that no one came forward to help. Even we did not move. But my dad,who was 64 years old then,first shouted from the terrace and then ran down and slapped the man and then handed him over the police,” states a proud son. Ajinkya realised that while the youth (“including Abhinay and me”) are white-blooded and self-centered,the senior citizens still had the fighting streak in them and were all up to stand against injustice.

However,it was during the making of Vasudev … three years back that he remembered the story and started working on it again as Lokmat Entertainment decided to join hands with RDP. Amol Shetge was brought in to help with the screenplay and script. Talking about selecting the cast,Ajinkya said that his aai and baba were the first choices for the roles of Yashwant and Sumati Rajadhyaksha. “Only they could have got into the characters and brought out the pain that parents go through when their children are in trouble,” he says. The character of Shweta Rajadhyaksha was very important to the film and had to ‘make the heart bleed for her’. Many girls had been screen-tested but when Manva Naik walked in one day during Seema and Ramesh Deo’s photo-shoot and did what was asked of her,she managed to convince everyone with her performance and was selected immediately. For the three guys who are playing the roles of villains,“We were not portraying bad looks,only ugly thoughts. So we selected Prasad Oak,Aditya Shah and Ranjeet Jog,” says the director. He explains that for the role of social worker Prabhakar,Ajinkya’s mother-in-law suggested Sharad Ponkshe’s name as she is a big fan of him. It was a unanimous decision to cast Ajinkya in the role of ACP Vikrant Marathe. “Since everything fell in place and we had a bound script ready,the film was completed in 23 days without any compromises in Mumbai. And since it is our home production it made things so much easier,” he admits.

Since Jeta has been garnering a good response,it has boosted Ajinkya’s morale and he is now planning his next venture. In fact,RDP has a three-film tie up with Lokmat Entertainment. After Jeta,the next would be a comedy-thriller that will go on floors in September and will release in January 2011. The third would be message-oriented and will be shot in the United States. In 2011,RDP will produce a Hindi film.
Ajinkya has his diary booked for the next 18 months but presently he is basking in the rave reviews that he is winning for his directorial debut Jeta.