Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 15, 2018)

After spending time abroad, shooting for her international projects, Priyanka Chopra wants to focus on her domestic ventures. She’ll join Salman Khan on the set of Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bharat soon, and is also looking forward to her next Marathi production, Paani. The film went on floors last week and is being helmed by actor turned-director Adinath Kothare, who is also part of Paani’s cast.

A source says, “This is the fourth Marathi venture from Priyanka’s production house, Purple Pebble Pictures. The movie is based on a true story of a man and his village, Nagdarwadi, situated in drought-affected Maharashtra.” Besides Adinath, it also stars Rucha Vaidya, Subodh Bhave, Kishor Kadam, Girish Joshi and Rajit Kapur.

When contacted, Chopra, who backed Marathi hits Ventilator (2016) and Kaay Re Rascala (2017), tells mid-day, “At my production house, we want to tell good stories, give new talent a chance and entertain the audience. There are many stories that reflect the realities of the world we live in and I believe it’s important to showcase them and bring that message to more people in a way that they can connect with. Paani is one such story and we’re looking forward to working with Adinath.”

Interestingly, the title, Paani, was copyrighted by Shekhar Kapur. But since his film didn’t take off, Chopra procured the necessary permissions to use the title for her film. “She thought Paani was perfect for her film,” adds the source.