While Mahesh Manjrekar may be friends with Salman Khan and is in talks to direct the actor's home production, he has named his next lavish trilingual play after Sallu's rival Shah Rukh Khan.
It's called Mee Shahrukh Manjarsum-bekar.
Manjrekar's play is about the common man's hopes and dreams. He confesses that he decided to name the political parable after Shah Rukh the moment he began writing it.
Common constant
Says the director, "Shah Rukh's connectivity with the masses makes him the perfect symbol of modern India."
The play is in three languages Hindi, Marathi and English and tackles different political issues and scandals. He explains, "Every season will deal with a different issue.
It could be the MNS insisting that only Marathi songs be played in pooja pandals, or the match-fixing scandal... the politics around the common man changes. The common man remains the constant."
The play hits theatres across Maharashtra from 16 October 2010. It is expected have at least 1000 performances in all three languages.While Manjrekar plays the lead in English and Hindi, Siddharth Jadhav plays the common man in the Marathi version.
True working class hero
Shah Rukh epitomises the common man's dreams, explains the director. "The play is about the aspirations, hopes and daily struggles of the common man in Maharashtra.
I thought SRK is the best symbol of the ordinary man's extraordinary dreams. He shares every common man's dreams. He is the true working-class hero."
