Mrinal Kulkarni is one of the finest actresses we have in M-Town. Not only in acting but she has proved to be one of the finest directors as well in her both the projects titled ‘Prem Mhanje Prem Asta’ and ‘Rama Madhav’. She is now all set to come up with her third directorial Ti And Ti starring Prarthana Behere, Sonalee Kulkarni and Pushkar Jog. It’s about to release this week on Women’s Day i.e. 8th March, 2019. On this occasion we decided to have a chat with Mrinal Kulkarni. Let’s see what she has in store for us.
- MarathiCelebs : Hello and welcome to MarathiCelebs.Com ma’am. We are very pleased to have you here today. Tell us what is Ti And Ti in your vision as a director?
- Mrinal Kulkarni : Thank you so much ! Ti And Ti is a film about young generation and in my vision Ti And Ti is a confusion which they have, including my son who is also same age. They have many choices and options open for almost everything even it be a chocolate or relationships which causes confusions. In life you have to make that one decision about one committed relationship/marriage and you need to maintain that relationship lifelong. But I have seen that young generation is under a lot of pressure for this. Ti And Ti is a light hearted picturization about all this confusion in choices. It’s a complete family entertainer with the perspectives of both the generations.
- MarathiCelebs : Your son Virajas is debuting with this film as a writer. As a mother what are your feelings about this?
- Mrinal Kulkarni : I am very proud of him. Not only this film but recently we came to know that his new play got eight nominations for Zee Gaurav. He has his own theatre group titled Theatreon. There he has done many plays of various genres in English, Hindi and Marathi. He has written, directed and acted in those plays. Writing, acting and directing at the same time; he has started it before me. In fact I have started direction very late. So yes I really feel very proud. And the kind of topics he is handling, I am expecting a lot from him. We have a background of literary family. My grandfather Dandekar was a very well known writer. Virajas has tremendous flair of writing in all three languages. Also, he has studied writing and direction in Mr. Subhash Ghai’s Whistling Woods Institution. Even, I get to learn a lot from him. My experience and his new energy, his thought process of this new generation makes a very good equation for us.
- MarathiCelebs : That’s very good and congratulations for his achievements. Pushkar, Prarthana and Sonalee all are Maharashtra’s favorite faces. How was your experience of working with them?
- Mrinal Kulkarni : My director friend Sanjay Surkar has once shared a secret with me for direction. If your casting is perfect then you have already won the half battle and remaining half becomes much easier. I try to implement this in all my projects. I don’t start any project until the perfect desired casting is done because while casting we need to be sure about what kind of an image that actor has and what kind of characters he/she can portray, what are their strengths. It’s even important in writing. Virajas knew all three of them which I guess helped him a lot. For ex. Sonalee has worked with me in Rama Madhav but here she is playing a complete different flamboyant character. Virajas could see her potential of pulling it. I am extremely happy that both my Ti’s Prarthana and Sonalee are very talented actresses. Even Pushkar is a very good actor and he is a part producer of the film. He was asking me about such genre for many days that let’s make something larger than life. And slowly we developed this idea. I am very happy that I got them as my lead actors.
- MarathiCelebs : Ti And Ti is a visual and content treat; the film has a fresh vibe. Would you like to tell us something about these foreign locations?
- Mrinal Kulkarni : We didn’t have anything particular in mind about foreign locations but since we were showing a honeymoon couple so we had to pick some destinations. All three artists and us were well versed together. I am a kind of director who believes in proper planning. I always say, playing in your area or in your nation is much easier than playing in some unknown country. So we had everything planned on paper. I was well aware with London so we decided to pick that as our location. Also, I got the beautiful young and fresh technical team as well. Our cinematographer Harshwardhan Patil, assistant cinematographers Sunit Vats, Sumit Dahiya, Asad Ali, editor Arjun Mogre and assistant editor Srushti Pathre. Co-incidentally all of them are from Whistling Woods. My whole team has played a very good role in this whole journey whether it be my singers Mahalaxmi Ayyer, Rohit Raut, Avadhoot or music directors Sai Piyush or any other artists.
- MarathiCelebs : Will we get to see you act also in Ti And Ti ?
- Mrinal Kulkarni : No. I won’t be acting in the film because it’s a film for youngistan. For Ti And Ti I have only concentrated on direction. But I have few upcoming projects as an actress this year. ‘Ye Re Ye Re Paisa 2’, ‘Welcome Home’ directed by national award winner Sumitra Bhave; in this I am playing the main character, one is my directorial and one more film will be coming soon.
- MarathiCelebs : What are your expectations from this film?
- Mrinal Kulkarni : More than the film I expect from myself. It’s my third project as a director. I wish to be a director who can engage all kinds of audience. There are many people who know me for my role in Swamini, many know me as Avantika, many as Jijau Aai Saheb, many as Sonpari. All these were different characters but my audience has loved me in all of them. So as a director also I expect to be able to entertain all age groups, all kinds of audience. Apart from acting and writing now it’s my second inning as a director and I am very thankful that people are appreciating and loving my work. They have showered their tremendous love and support on my first 2 directorial films as well and I expect that they will enjoy this film also. It’s my responsibility to give you the various and new content.
- MarathiCelebs : What do you like more ? Acting or direction?
- Mrinal Kulkarni : I have been acting since 25 years now. So of course it’s easier than directing for me. But direction is something which challenges me more. As a director you have to think about all the aspects and you have to move ahead with your team. I get to learn a lot of things in this process which helps me to grow. As I am a person who is a keen learner and a workaholic person so I would say yes, direction interests me more.
- MarathiCelebs : Would you like to give any message for the audience?
- Mrinal Kulkarni : For my audience I would like to say that until now you have always showered your love and it’s just a start my friend, Picture abhi baki hai. You just start reacting I promise to give you the best content. I would like to urge to all the Marathi audience, please watch the Marathi films in theatres in the first week, not only our film but all the Marathi films whichever interests you. Because even if we have good content and finest films we are yet to achieve higher goals in the financial aspects. With your support we can surely conquer that.
Thank you so much for talking to MarathiCelebs.Com Mrinal ma’am ! We wish you all the very best for Ti And Ti and all your future endeavors.
