Actress plays Marathi mulgi in a family comedy, set in the ’90s, and revolving around arranged marriages
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 14, 2020)

On Christmas Eve, Abhishek Sharma announced his next directorial, Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari, which features Manoj Bajpayee, Diljit Dosanjh and Fatima Sana Shaikh. The film went on the floors on January 6, with the team shooting silently in Mumbai ever since. Mirror has now learnt that after playing Haryana wrestler Geeta Phogat in Nitesh Tiwari’s Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal, Fatima will play a Marathi mulgi for the first time in this Zee Studios production.

As part of her prep, the actress trained for over a month with her language coach to get her diction right. According to a source, “Abhishek also conducted several readings with her and they worked on her body language to align with the character’s before taking the film on the floors.”

Abhishek, who has previously directed Parmanu and Tere Bin Laden, informs Fatima’s Tulsi is a multi-layered character. “She has a dual personality, for which we needed an actor who could be vulnerable, mysterious and assertive with equal ease,” he shares, adding that his leading lady’s “infectious enthusiasm keeps us all energised on set”.

The family comedy is set in 1990s Mumbai and is a different take on arranged marriages. “There was innocence before the world was exposed to social media. Since there was no Facebook or Instagram, wedding investigators were hired to stalk people,” explains Abhishek. “The team recreated Mumbai chawls and vintage libraries to set the ambience and a part was shot on the set in Film City,” the source informed. The film’s leads are shooting the rest of their scenes at real-life locations including a railway station in South Mumbai. Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari will wrap up by mid-March and the makers are targeting to release it later this year.