How did Shreyas Talpade take Agra by storm? Rashima Nagpal reports on-site
After leaving tourists and the people of Agra muddled up for days over a ‘mysterious’ publicity stunt that declared the closure of Taj Mahal for tourists, Shreyas Talpade along with his co-star Manjari Phadnis finally arrived in the city for the press conference of Wah Taj on a tractor! The on-screen couple awestruck the press, invited from different cities, and everybody around in their traditional Marathi avatar. However, much of his time was spent in clearing the confusion his film’s posters created in the bylanes of Agra.
To give you a backgrounder, the makers and the star cast of Wah Taj ran into legal controversy recently over distribution of pamphlets which stated that the Taj Mahal would be shut for tourists September 23 onwards following the court’s order on Maharashtra’s ‘Tukaram case’ (Tukaram is the name of the character played by Shreyas in the film).
When asked about the promotional gimmick going horribly wrong, Shreyas Talpade confided he didn’t expect any ‘confusion or controversy’ but apologised for the inconvenience caused to the people of Agra. However, he stressed on the need of out-of-the-box ideas to get a film (especially low-budget films) talked about and even urged people to take a chill pill. “Thoda chill maaro,” he said, adding that ‘people are growing oversensitive’.
The event started off with a curtain raiser to launch the poster of the film which is a debut direction by Ajit Sinha. Wah Taj is a story of a Maharashtrian villager Tukaram who leaves everything behind and reaches to Agra with his wife (played by Manjari) to claim that the land on which the Taj Mahal has been built belongs to his ancestors. The funny thing about this fictional drama sequence is that Tukaram’s claims come out to be true. A ‘political satire’ as they say it is; the poster also depicts the satirical element quite nicely.
As the motion poster of the film was played at the event, Amitabh Bacchan’s voice resonated to describe the majesty of the Taj Mahal.
Shreyas bracketed Wah Taj as an offbeat film on the lines of Welcome to Sajjanpur. The film is primarily shot in Agra and in fields around the Taj Mahal. “The audience has evolved. So those films where the hero is seen romancing the heroine in a scenic landscape don’t work anymore”, Shreyas observed.
Manjari Phadnis, who looked like a traditional Maharashtrian diva, didn’t reveal much about her character apart from the fact that it is pivotal to the development of the plot. “It’s a fun family drama that everyone must watch with their families”, she ended. The movie is slated for release September 23.
