Click to play videoMumbai: Shyam Benegal's new film Welcome to Sajjanpur is scheduled to release this Friday, and interestingly, it doesn't look like a regular Benegal film.
Welcome to Sajjanpur is the story of a village called Sajjanpur and it's various characters.
Actor Shyreyas Talpade plays Mahadev, an aspiring writer who ends up putting all his passion into writing letters for the illiterate village folk and if the promos make you feel it's just a comedy, then you are wrong.
"It's a nice mix of romantic comedy and social satire where the crux is the love story and it is surrounded by so many characters where they make statements on social issues but in a very humorous and entertaining way," says Talpade.
Shreyas's love intertest in the film is Amrita Rao who plays the role of Kamla and Kamla's letters are also written by Mahadev.
"The last time I wrote a letter was to my cousin who is in USA. We have this tradition of writing letters to each other," says Amrita.
And in case you are wondering where exactly this Sajjanpur is, Amrita says, "We actually traced it out. Sajjanpur is near the border. It's a small village and there is something called Sujanpur and Sarhanpur also."
It's a fictitious kind of place but still it's placed in Madhya Pradesh in a region called Bundelkhand," says Talpade.
The latest Benegal film comes three years after his last, the bio-pic on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose which got a rather cold response at the box office. Here's hoping the filmmaker has better luck this time.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.