It was sometime during 1969 that a child artiste with the name of Mahesh Kumar grabbed a meaty double role in Bollywood film ‘Raja aur Rank’. Not many knew that he was a Maharashtrian. Mahesh played a young Prince with authority in that age with confidence. He had many good stars to support him in this film. Popular Dancer and actress from South -Padmini and late Sanjeev Kumar were very much part of this film. The film was a hit at that time for its presentation and popular songs. Besides ‘Raja Aur Rank’, Mahesh also played memorable roles as a child actor in ‘Chhota Bhai’, ‘Mere Laal’ and ‘Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani’. Few years later, he was seen playing an adolescent in Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore film ‘Safar’. He played a perfect collegian and younger brother of Feroze Khan , who played a parallel role in this film.

Later, when he studied in Mumbai’s Wilson College, it did not take much time for him to mature as a hero and find roles in Marathi films as a young handsome hero. Simultaneously, he also performed in Gujarathi films. After playing a hero for some time, Mahesh soon produced and directed his own films. Till today, he has dedicated himself as a film maker with perfection on technicalities , knowing his job well, as a director.

Mahesh Kothare
As a successful hero and director through his own productions since 80s from ‘Dhumdhadaka’ to Pachadlela’, Mahesh Kothare has offered all quality films to entertain the Marathi audience. He almost knew the pulse of Marathi audience. And his talent came as a blessing to Marathi film industry in 80s. Mahesh has succeeded in bringing a number of innovations especially in the technical area of Marathi films and has been instrumental in bringing Dolby Digital sound to Marathi Cinema with the film ‘Chimni Pakhara’. He made ‘Pachadlela’ in 2004 – the first Marathi film with Digital Special Effects. He also made his identity as the first Marathi Film Maker to produce Sci-Fi films.

The good news is that his latest directorial film ‘Dubhang’, Produced by Shankar Mitkari, has
received the sponsorship from Future General India Ltd. This film is based on the backdrop of Boxing, where the hero of the film (played by his own son Adinath) has a mission in his life to participate one day in the Olympics and win a Gold medal for the country. While speaking to Marathi Movie World, Mahesh said that the subject of this film was in his mind for the past few years and had even talked to popular actors like Shreyas Talpade and Reitesh Deshmukh to play the lead; but, somehow the idea didn’t work. Finally, he found his hero in his own son-Adinath , who had turned mature by the passage of time to fit into this lead role. “It was almost like the role was waiting for him” he said.

Mahesh is very excited to speak about his new film ‘Dubhang’. “It may sound like Bollywood’s ‘Dabang’, but the meaning of both the films are different. In fact, I was asked to change the title of my film by the makers of ‘Dabhang’, when they came to know about it. But, since I had registered it much before, I had to convince them that it carried a different meaning. You will find lot of twists and turns in this film , with a story that you haven’t heard of before in Marathi and Hindi films.

Actually, I have taken the idea from a Malyalam film, which was shown to me by my friend. So, I took the proper rights from them but finally gave a different look to the film. Fortunately, all my artistes responded very well and Adinath in particular playing an aspiring boxer, has fulfilled all my expectations. There is a love story angle to this film, with the girl in his life standing by his side during the time of crisis. My first scene itself begins with Urmila’s marriage to a stranger against her wish and Adinath elopes with her,” he added.

Speaking about the lead pair Urmila and Adinath, Mahesh was high praise for the girl and her talent. “Urmila is a talented actress and I have seen her potential through her previous film. Adinath turned out to be a perfect match for her.” All that Mahesh had to say that both had developed a good chemistry between them. “I had seen them coming closer during my previous project ‘Shubhamangal’ in which she was a leading lady and Adinath was my assistant in direction. Now, you will witness their actual love story happening on the screen,” he concluded.