MUMBAI: Naseeruddin Shah has ventured into Marathi films. He is signed by director Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni for the film Deool.

Costing Rs 40 million, the film has 35 actors while Shah plays a God-like figure. "He had seen a short film, Girni, that I had made, and after reading Deool‘s script, he immediately agreed to do the film," said Kulkarni. The film that also stars Nana Patekar will release in September.

Deool revolves around a bunch of people from a rural area, whose lives change due to development in the cities. "Villages are becoming semi-towns. Educated young people don‘t want to farm, but can‘t get dignified jobs. Basic technology and education have seeped into the interiors, so the locals know what‘s out there but don‘t have access to it," Kulkarni observes.

 
Both Patekar and Shah‘s performances have earned great acclaim over the years, but this is the first time the actors will share screen space in a film with Marathi dialect. Recalling how this transpired, Kulkarni revealed, "Both of them came to felicitate the crew of my film Valu when it had completed 100 days. And someone from the audience came on the dais and expressed his desire to see both of them together."

Patekar plays the role of a sarpanch (head of the Panchayat), Bhau Galande. The film also stars Dilip Prabhawalkar, who played Mahatma Gandhi in Lage Raho Munna Bhai and Mohan Agashe.