The pan-India and historical films that are the Bollywood thing are growing bigger and bigger and the buzz lately is around Raja Shivaji, the highly-awaited movie. Right now the film is getting a lot of buzz with the size, casting and storyline revolving around the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj directed and produced by Riteish Deshmukh.
The Bollywood superstar Salman Khan is expected to play a pivotal role in the film to hype up things further. This was disclosed by Riteish Deshmukh, during the last minutes of Bigg Boss Marathi 6, stating talks have been held with Salman Khan and he is indeed a part of the new bigg team project.
But the film’s filmmakers have yet to show the character Salman will be depicted in the film, though there’s speculation that he might play Jiva Mahala. The film star, in the film’s hands, and one whose more than 20 years in the making, that was, it is, show us how much Riteish Deshmukh enjoys to breathing life into the saga of the storied past of India. It is a means of spotlighting the heroism, the leadership and the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on screen.
The film’s ensemble cast is also charming. Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sachin Khedekar, Bhagyashree, Fardeen Khan, Jitendra Joshi, Amol Gupte, and Genelia Deshmukh are cast on same boat as Riteish Deshmukh. And Raja Shivaji is even more ambitious given its multilingual release strategy. It's being delivered in all languages: Marathi, Hindi, Telugu, with the hope of reaching audiences from all parts of India, not just India. But since it has a May 1 release date, the film is long overdue for some more information and promotion.
A movie that the nation’s capital and millions will love and remember, and at its moment of release is destined to be a blockbuster of Indian cinema all a potent mix of old-school storytelling, star power and heavy production. If the role of Salman Khan would officially be confirmed, however, it would become another landmark collaboration of his career and only ratchet up the national hype on the film. Raja Shivaji is also poised to be one of the landmark historical dramas in Indian cinema with plenty of pent-up hype.
