Shahir Sable biopic dialogue connected by netizens to Thackeray-Shinde clash

Mumbai: Industries minister Uday Samant on Tuesday unveiled the trailer of the much-awaited Marathi film ‘Maharashtra Shahir’, a biopic of noted folk artist Krishnarao Ganpatrao aka Shahir Sable. The trailer has already gone viral on social media, perhaps for the wrong reasons: netizens have been connecting a dialogue mouthed by Sable to the political clash between Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.

The dialogue in question, said to a political leader, is: “Aamhi kalaakar aahot pan kunache mindhe naahit (We are artistes, not helpless stooges).” Social media users connecting the dialogue with Uddhav Thackeray’s remark on the Shinde faction has upset director Kedar Shinde, who is Sable’s grandson. “I was very disappointed at this,” he said. “It is also disrespectful to Shahir. The sentence is, in fact, in his autobiography. So I appeal to social media users not to make unnecessary connections without understanding the facts.”

Shahir Sabale, incidentally, was among the first persons to enrol as a Shiv Sainik when the Shiv Sena was founded by Bal Thackeray in 1966. A song sung by him, ‘Jai jai Maharashtra maajha’ was declared the state song a month ago.

Actor Ankush Chaudhari plays the role of Shahir in the film while Shahir’s real-life great-granddaughter, Sana Shinde, plays the role of Shahir’s wife. “We released a teaser of the film on the eighth death anniversary of Shahir Sable on March 20,” Shinde told HT. “We got a great response.”

The trailer begins with a very popular folk song of yesteryear, ‘Maharashtra bhoomi bahuguni’. The singer is stopped from hailing Maharashtra’s culture by a character who says that the word ‘Maharashtra’ cannot figure so many times in the song. The rebellious Shahir retorts: “Then what am I expected to narrate about the birth of Chhatrapati Shivaji? Where was he born, in Delhi or Calcutta?” There are many such scenes in the films to showcase the multifarious hues of Shahir’s personality, from his tough mindset to his rebellious thoughts.

The musical extravaganza will hit screens across the state on April 28. “I am sure people are eagerly awaiting the release,” said Shinde. “During its making, what I realised about Shahir was what a great personality he had. The biopic is being produced to carry forward his rich legacy and present it to the generations to come.”