Actor Addinath Kothare ventured into direction with the Marathi movie Paani (2024), where he also played the main lead. The film won the National Award for Best Film on Environment Conservation/ Preservation. Recently, Kothare was also bestowed upon with the Best Director Award at the Filmfare Awards Marathi. Sharing his reaction on the film’s triumphs, he told Bollywood Hungama exclusively, “God is kind. It has been a great year. A lot of years of efforts are finally paying off. It’s a great cathartic feeling right now.”
EXCLUSIVE: Addinath Kothare is ecstatic by Paani’s triumph, reveals how an episode of Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate gave him the idea
Kothare said that he was not at all thinking about the accolades when he set out to make the film. “I just wanted to tell the story,” he said. “I was trying to direct a film and I was waiting for a good story to tell.”
Interestingly, Aamir Khan’s iconic television show Satyamev Jayate played a role in helping Kothare select the subject for Paani. “I was researching on a story to tell,” he said. “I had 2-3 ideas in my head. One subject was water crisis. This issue always troubles me a lot also. While researching on the subject, I stumbled upon an episode of Satyamev Jayate; the episode on water crisis. I found a small byte of a man in Marathwada, who was Hanumant Kendre. I thought this might be interesting.”
Kothare continued, “I found out his contact. I went there and met him. When I had spoken to him on the phone, he couldn’t believe me. He felt someone is playing a prank. He said, ‘You come in front of me, then I will believe you’. I then went to Nanded. He met me and gave me a tight hug. He was so excited to see me. He showed me around; what all they had done in the village. I was inspired by the whole thing. It was like reality is stranger than fiction. The story he told me, that man almost lost his life trying to do what he was trying to do. It was so dramatic. I felt his is cinema!”
Kothare said that it was his dream to play Hanumant Kendre and also direct the film. However, when he went pitching the film, he felt that he won’t be able to do both. “Nobody entrusts a first-time director to act and direct at the same time,” he said.
Then entered Priyanka Chopra Jonas on the scene. “I then met a few angles at Priyanka Chopra’s Purple Pebble Pictures,” said Kothare. “They believed in me and my team and entrusted me with this responsibility. Rashmi Kulkarni (from Purple Pebble Pictures) told me that I should play the part.”
When asked how challenging it was to direct your first film and also play the main lead in it, Kothare said, “I was more excited. You don’t feel the challenges when you enjoy the journey. Of course, smoke was coming out from everywhere (laughs). But I think that is what we live for yaar. I could do it only because I had a great team with me. We had a great pre-production done.”
Naturally, Addinath Kothare can’t thank Priyanka Chopra enough. “Oh my God, she is godsend for me,” he exclaimed. “She is the most hard-working person I have met in my entire life. When we were scripting Paani, she was giving her notes on the script while she was in LA shooting for Quantico. Later on, she was in Hollywood and UK and then she came down when our edit was locked. She sat with me on the edit. She gave me some vital inputs on the edit.”
Kothare revealed that Priyanka also provided him some much needed emotional support. “During the release, she was with me on the phone, giving me hope and strength saying, ‘We are going to make it, Adi. It is all going to happen’. She stood by me like a rock. Also her entire family – Priyanka, Madhu (Chopra) ji, Siddharth (Chopra),” he said.
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