I believe in characters, not celebrities: 'Fandry' director

Character and not celebrities are more important for Nagraj Manjule, director of the critically acclaimed Marathi movie 'Fandry' that has already won several awards at renowned film festivals even before its theatrical release.
"I will always run for character actors and not the celebrities. I'm of the opinion that if your script has a strong character it can create greater audience appeal," Manjule said.
The director shared his experience and insights about the movie post its screening at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) with lead actor Kishore Kadam and producers Nilesh Navalakha and Vivek Kajaria.
Talking about his journey with the movie as a director, Manjule, said, "It's my first feature film, a biopic of my own life. My journey with this film from inception till now has been very exciting and it's indeed an honour that in a year's time the movie has been going places gathering accolades from the audience and critics."

"This movie is for those people who experience a feeling of complexity on a personal as well as a societal level. Many people even found the ending of the movie seemed to replicate some other movie but as a director it wasn't a deliberate effort. From my vision that was the most convincing closure to the story," Manjule added.
Kadam, who won critical acclaim for his performance in Shyam Benegal's 'Samar', said that 'Fandry' was the most difficult film for him till date.

"In past 20 years I have enacted so many distinguished characters that industry perceives me as a character actor and that's how I was approached for 'Fandry' too. Every new project is learning for an actor but 'Fandry' was an 'unlearning' for me and that's the most difficult part," he said.

Producers of the movie Nilesh Navalakha and Vivek Kajaria said that they felt happy to come back to IFFI as the journey of 'Fandry' had started with the screening of its first cut at Film Bazaar in Goa last year.
"It gives us great pleasure to bring this movie back to Goa after a year," Navalakha said.