The noted actress from Marathi movies and TV serials, Mrunmayee Deshpande, has turned director. Her directorial debut Mann Fakiraa is all set to release on Valentine’s Day – February 14. Yesterday, the makers unveiled the first poster of this Marathi flick and it has been highly appreciated from its freshness and modern vibe!

Mann Fakiraa stars Suvrat Joshi, Sayli Sanjeev, Anjali Patil and Ankit Mohan. All four of them can be seen in the poster looking happy and appealing. The dynamics between them however is unclear and that’s something that will be revealed hopefully in the theatrical trailer.

Produced by S N Productions and Smita Vinay Ganu, Nitin Prakash Vaidya, Om Prakash Bhatt, Sujay Shankarwar and Kishor Patel with co-producer Trupti Kulkarni and Pranav Chaturvedi, Mann Fakiraa is presented by Purple Bull International Private Limited and Smita Film Productions.

Mrunmayee Deshpande, on this poster launch, says, “Maan Fakiraa is going to be a trendsetting film. It talks about the human relationship and depicts the openness of the young generation the way they look at it. The definition of the bond for the youngsters has changed and they have started looking at it in a broader perspective. They have more maturity in their relationship now and they check, at first, if spending the entire life with him/her was possible. They expect a companion and a friend in their spouse rather than just a namesake relationship.”

She adds, “I always wanted to be a director and it had been at the back of my mind for last ten years. Direction is not new for me. I had won a prize for best direction for a one act play directed by me when I was in third year of the degree course. I was waiting for an opportune time to shoulder the responsibility. The directorial stint needs a certain amount of maturity and adequate amount of experience learnt from the life. I think I have shouldering the responsibility at the right time.”

Mrunmayee Deshpande herself has also written the story of Mann Fakiraa. While speaking about the plot and her attempt to pen it, Mrunmayee said, “Human relationship is a subject that’s very close to my heart. I can read the people from their body language and their eyes. Human relationship is something which needs to be learnt by going into its depth. They become interesting if showcased with simplicity and finesse. I have tried to express the delicate relationship and it’s every little aspect through this story. Being my first film as a director, Mann Fakiraa is very special to me. I am sure that the Marathi audience, especially the modern young generation, will love it.”

A lead in a Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra film, a dark comedy opposite Rajkummar Rao which won at the Berlinale this year, a festival favourite opposite Nagraj Manjule and a part in a Thalaivaa film that she's presently shooting for - 2017 is a busy one for Anjali Patil. But when we meet the 29-year-old at an Andheri café, she tells us it wasn't so a few years ago. The actor, who made her debut in Delhi in a Day, post graduating from the National School of Drama, had been out of work for a couple of years. “After Chakravyuh (2012), which was my first big banner film opposite Arjun (Rampal) and Abhay (Deol), I was only offered similar roles - a naxal, a maid, a village girl. I didn't want to do parts which were offered to me because I look a certain way,“ says the actor who didn't want her skin tone to limit her aspirations. “Our obsession with light skin has to do with colonization and also says that our society hasn't evolved. We are OK with fair girls who can't act as lead but not the other way around.“

But Patil seems to have navigated the prejudices of the film industry. In fact, she won a National Award and the Nandi Award for her performance in the Telugu film Naa Bangaaru Talli and a Silver Peacock at IFFI for her Sri Lankan film With You, Without You. “I can play five maids but all will be distinctly different from the other. But that doesn't mean I am slotted into a box and restricted to certain characters,“ says Patil.

Owing to lack of relevant offers coming her way, Patil decided to break away from the city in 2015 to invest in some soul searching. She also “renounced“ all her belongings, barring four pairs of clothes, and embarked on a road trip from Rishikesh to Ladakh - a trip that lasted for a year-and-a-half, during which, she lived in ashrams and monasteries and even learnt Buddhist philosophy. “Travel helped me connect with myself. Everything you do, you learn something about yourself,“ says Patil, who discovered that she was “intuitive“ and “not receptive to being told what to do“.

It was during this trip that she was offered Rahul Shanklya's Nimmo. “I agreed to do it because they were shooting in Jabalpur and I didn't need to move back to Mumbai,“ says Patil. She completed the shoot and disappeared to Nepal to live in a monastery again. “Every film is like a love affair and once it's over, you need to forget it and begin on a clean slate.“

During this quest, the actor rejected projects because they “required a year's commitment“ and that didn't agree with her “bohemian nomad self“. “The day I switched on my phone in Nepal, I got a call from Amit (Masurkar). I read the brilliant script of Newton and just had to do it,“ she says of the film which won the CICAE Art Cinema Award at Berlinale this year.

But it is only when she bagged the lead in Mehra's Mere Pyare Prime Minister, which narrates the story of a slum kid who strives to build a toilet for her mother, that she moved back to Mumbai. Accepting to play a character who hails from humble surroundings - basically a part that restricts her to the same stereotype she has been striving to break - Patil took it up because she wanted to “experience the process“ of working with Mehra.

But it was working with Rajinikanth in Kaala (presently under production) that altered her perception of the craft. “He is every bit of enigma. There's celebration in the air when he's around and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't met him,“ she says. Patil recalls shooting with the South superstar in Grant Road recently. “Since it was time for iftaar, it was crowded. But he got off his car and requested the crowd to cooperate and everyone obliged.“ This is when Patil learnt about “the influence that comes with stardom“ and that it can be used for larger good.

Growing up in Nashik before she moved to Pune to pursue her graduation in performing arts, Patil's earliest association with the craft was her ability to come up with elaborate lies. “If I skipped tuitions, I'd tell my mother that I was on my way to classes but a huge cow blocked my path and I couldn't get past it despite my best efforts,“ she laughs. While her exposure to films was limited during childhood, she credits her father for introducing her to the works of K L Saigal and films such as Do Bigha Zameen, which most of her peers were unaware of. “Hemant Kumar and Manna Dey's songs would be lullabies and my father had a collection of his favourites, which became mine too.“ Following her graduation, when she applied to the National School of Drama, she took up the direction course as she was “unhappy about how directors treated actors“. “I had long hair so I'd play Stella in Street Car Named Desire and similar parts. I felt being just an actor was limiting at the time.“

Patil also has two Marathi releases this year - Silence with Manjule and Bardo with Makarand Deshpande. Yet, she feels she has barely managed to make the most of the renaissance in Marathi cinema. “No one reached out to me. Sometimes, when you're perceived as an intense actor and you win a National Award, people feel you're a certain kind of actor and slot you,“ she says.

For Anjali Patil, who plays the second lead in Mirzya, one of the most challenging scenes was the one that required her to use a hot iron rod on actor Harshvardhan Kapoor.

The National Award winner, who plays Zeenat in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's directorial, says, “In the scene, I had to remove a tattoo from Harshvardhan's back. The process is quite painful and the way we shot the scene was scary. The iron rod was heated to an extent that even if a single particle dropped on his bare body, it could have pierced his skin. We stuck a patch of flesh to his back, but I was still worried that I might end up hurting him.“

We hear the team shot the scene multiple times before okaying it. “Harshavardhan was brave and trusted me. Of course, we took safety precautions.“