He speaks broken Marathi, but is well conversant with Hindi; yet, he prefers to speak in English when it’s time to address media. Marathi Movie World had a chit chat with Edward Sonenblick from USA, who was the star attraction during the Music release of the forthcoming Marathi film ‘Gajaar‘, in which he is playing an important role.

Edward, married Sonal Mehta, a short film maker from India, after he met her three and half years ago, during his first shoot in India as an actor. With his Jovial and delightful nature, he invited the attention of the guests, especially after he shared his experience with the film from the dais. Though Edward will be a new face to Marathi cinema, he is not new to Indian Cinema, having performed in a South Indian film of Nagarjuna, as a British Officer and as a villain in popular Hindi TV serial ‘Jhansi Ki Raani‘.

Edward was in Pune for two weeks during his visit in 2008, when he first had a glimpse of the Vaari, where he was held up in traffic jam, due to diversion of route.
“At that time, I was more enthusiastic to know about this pilgrimage undertaken by Varkaris in a big way. And, when I learnt about its relevance to 18 chapters of Dnyaneshwari, I was more passionate to understand about the devotion of these varkaris.” he said.

“I am fortunate that later I became part of this film and it was a great experience working in this film.” he adds. In ‘Gajaar’ Edward is playing the role of Eric, who clouts with an idea of making a film on Vaari. In the film, he is shown as a researcher in Anthropology and is excited about this 700 year old traditional Vaari. He persuades his friend Parth (Chinmay Mandlekar) , a film school graduate, who is not very spiritual but finally, they manage to shoot along with 20 lakh people.

Edward seemed to be happy with the role he played in ‘Gajaar‘. “Best thing about this role is that I am there throughout the film and I really enjoyed working with all of them during the four week schedule and later when I joined them after seven months for the remaining part. But, the best thing to happen was experiencing the Vaari live and understanding the spirituality behind it.” he concludes.