Last week director, actor- director Mahesh Kothare launched his memoir Damn It Aani Barach Kahi. He admits that put up the launch – which was fairly an extravagant affair – he’s “a bit relaxed”.
Mahesh reveals that whereas the considered writing a memoir was on his thoughts, it was his son, actor Addinath Kothare and others who satisfied him “write down the journey of 60 years”. “It has been quite a journey. I entered the film industry in 1962. I have seen the black and white cinema, the colour one, and now the digital one. So, it was very necessary that there’s some kind of documentation of that,” he provides.
While writing a memoir, the one typically raised concern is in regards to the sanitization of the story. Over the discharge of a number of memoirs the selection of choosing and selecting sure occasions of 1’s lives have been typically pointed as a priority by readers. Point this out to Kothare and he nonchalantly replies that he has “gone all out” with this one. “I have not drawn any line, I have not hidden anything, I’ve spoken extensively about every situation, every film of mine, every internal difficulties in our family,” the Zapatlela 2 director shares.
The most troublesome a part of penning down an autobiography needs to be the trip that one has to take to the arduous knocks of life. During the dialog, the 69-year-old opens up about one such section. “I have seen lots of ups and downs. But, there was a phase when I crashed down to the bottom and to crawl back was difficult. When this part was written, I wanted my exact emotions to come out, as at that time I faced immense insult and defamation. I had decided that I would not react back then. This was in 1999. I made a Hindi film Lo Main Aagaya – that was a big mistake, a big disaster. That period lasted for a long time, almost 15 years,” Mahesh mentions.
Elaborating a bit extra in regards to the section, he shares, “That period was tough for me. When I was writing about it I wondered how I went through that period and survived it. There was a time when I had no roof over my head. We sold our house to get over the liabilities. So, it had to be penned the way it was. My son was in his college days and we even had to get his admission in MBA. That was a very tough situation. But my son, he was so understanding, he never demanded anything. I tried my best not to have any kind of effect on him and the family.”