Director Siddharth P Malhotra is currently gearing up for the release of Maharaj, which marks his OTT debut as a director after helming the 2018 blockbuster Hichki. The filmmaker shared that the journey of making the film has been an “uphill journey” and penned a post expressing his gratitude for the film’s writers - Vipul Mehta and Sneha Desai.
Taking to Instagram, the Maharaj director reminisced, “I still remember we were headed back from a series pitch when @director_vipul_mehta narrated this idea of a play he directed and I was spell bound. I requested him a day later to allow me to direct it and you write it and be there with me to guide me and he graciously agreed and he got his team with Abhinay and prarthi and we begun on the script.” The caption starts with mentions of this post as a first of the further appreciation posts to come.
Speaking about Sneha, Siddharth P Malhotra stated, “In a parallel timeline I had heard so much about @snehadesaiofficial as an actress and playwright so I went to watch the gujrati play and was more than spellbound by her performance and writing. The universe conspired thru me when I offered her to come on board as well and vipul knew her too and thus began the writing process of this film based of saurabh shahs book which we got the rights for. The film went thru a rigorous 28 to 30 drafts as the material was so much. Post which we have done over a 100 narration’s where the writers have given their blood, sweat and very valuable time.” The Maharaj director also revealed how Sneha was always there and also helped train the actors on the sets with the lingo.
Extending gratitude to the team that helped make this story come together, director concludes, “Thank you to my most amazing writing team. This film is cause you are 🙌❤️ always in gratitude to the writing team.”
Based on Saurabh Shah’s book with the same name, Maharaj, he further revealed that the script “went through rigorous 28 to 30 drafts as the material was so much”. Maharaj marks Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan’s acting debut and also features Jaideep Ahlawat, Shalini Pandey and Sharvari Wagh among others. Maharaj will be a direct-to-digital release slated for June 14.