In a gesture to support drought-hit Maharashtra, Riteish Deshmukh, who’s currently shooting his next film Banjo with Nargis Fakhri, decided to scrap the use of fake-rain in a song the unit recently shot.
The song in question was to feature a Ganpati celebration and director Ravi Jadhav had envisaged the visuals with water sprinkling around, presumably for dramatic effect.
However, Deshmukh felt the use of tons of water for a sequence would be insensitive at a time when one of the worst droughts in history has hit Maharashtra.
In a statement shared with HuffPost India, the film’s producer Krishika Lulla (Eros International) said, “The sequence originally had Riteish dancing with his band in a rain sequence during the Ganpati song and this would have resulted in wasting a lot of water. Being responsible citizens, and understanding the seriousness of the water crisis in the State, we opted for dhol, gulal and dance instead, to create a festive revelry without compromising the look or feel.”
Deshmukh added, “I hail from Latur and am fully aware of the drought situation currently across many regions in and around my hometown. In such a scenario, it didn’t feel right for us to use excess water for filming a particular scene. It was a unanimous decision between the producer, director and me to rework the scene.”
Other actors who are doing their bid to support the State include Akshay Kumar who donated Rs. 50 lakh, and Aamir Khan whose NGO Paani Foundation is closely working with over 120 villages to end the water-crisis. Nana Patekar, too, is spearheading the cause and even distributed cheques to widows of farmers who havd committed suicide.
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The song in question was to feature a Ganpati celebration and director Ravi Jadhav had envisaged the visuals with water sprinkling around, presumably for dramatic effect.
However, Deshmukh felt the use of tons of water for a sequence would be insensitive at a time when one of the worst droughts in history has hit Maharashtra.
In a statement shared with HuffPost India, the film’s producer Krishika Lulla (Eros International) said, “The sequence originally had Riteish dancing with his band in a rain sequence during the Ganpati song and this would have resulted in wasting a lot of water. Being responsible citizens, and understanding the seriousness of the water crisis in the State, we opted for dhol, gulal and dance instead, to create a festive revelry without compromising the look or feel.”
Deshmukh added, “I hail from Latur and am fully aware of the drought situation currently across many regions in and around my hometown. In such a scenario, it didn’t feel right for us to use excess water for filming a particular scene. It was a unanimous decision between the producer, director and me to rework the scene.”
Other actors who are doing their bid to support the State include Akshay Kumar who donated Rs. 50 lakh, and Aamir Khan whose NGO Paani Foundation is closely working with over 120 villages to end the water-crisis. Nana Patekar, too, is spearheading the cause and even distributed cheques to widows of farmers who havd committed suicide.
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