Nawazuddin had always wanted to play Balasaheb Thackeray!

By Nishant. A. Bhuse

on December 21, 2017

It does not get better than this. Bollywood, which does not recognize caste nor creed, will see the distinctly Muslim Nawazuddin Siddiqui acting as the quintessentially Maharashtrian Balasaheb Thackeray in Shiv Sena MP and producer Sanjay Raut’s biopic Thackeray that gets announced today.

The film, whose teaser and look is being unveiled by Amitabh Bachchan at a glittering ceremony at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai presided over by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, is a biopic on the late party supremo that begins when he is in his 30s.

Sources say that Nawazuddin was approached by the creative team of Rauters’ Entertainment (Sanjay Raut’s production company) a couple of months ago and given a brief narration of the story. It turned out that this wasn’t necessary because Nawazuddin had huge admiration for Balasaheb Thackeray and always wished he could play the Sena supremo on screen. The actor was so excited that he did not even bother to discuss money with Raut’s team. He immediately gave them his okay and did a photo-shoot for the film that is reproduced here.

The only issue was that there are to be some dialogues in the film that are delivered in Marathi and Nawazuddin with his pronounced Uttar Pradesh accent would not be able to do them. These dialogues are the kind of witty one-liners that Balasaheb was famous for. They could not be ruled out of a biopic on him. So it was decided to keep only these one-liners in Marathi and let the rest of the film be in Hindi. A diction expert will be brought in to help Nawazuddin get his Marathi right. Sanjay Raut is reportedly looking at getting Maharashtra Navnirman Sena member and screenwriter Abhijeet Panse to direct the film.

According to Sanjay Raut, he will ensure accuracy while showcasing the leader. "We will portray the important events in his life. He was a leader who did not hide anything from his people. We want to reveal his personality. It is my dream project. It won't be a documentary. It will be a feature film along the lines of those made for Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela," Raut told Mid-Day.com