After delivering hits like Welcome to Sajjanpur and Iqbal, Bollywood actor Shreyas Talpade is back on the big screen; this time donning a director's hat. Poster Boys, inspired by a real-life incident about three porters who found their pictures on a vasectomy poster, marks the directorial debut of the actor. The film is a remake of the Marathi film Poshter Boyz, which was produced by the actor.
The film will see Bollywood actors Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol sharing the screen space with Talpade. Though the film's story line coincides with the latest trend of discussing health issues and sexuality through cinema, Talpade clarifies that his attempt was not to follow the trend.
“When we started shooting the Marathi film, Poshter Boyz in 2013 that realised in 2014, we got a wonderful reaction from the audience at the time of its release. This compelled us to write the Hindi version of the Marathi script. When I started writing for the Hindi version, films like Toilet-Ek Prem Katha and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan were not even on the radar,” he said.
On zeroing down on the topic of vasectomy, Talpade said, “I loved this subject when a friend told me about the news of the real-life incident that happened. I instantly loved the idea. I felt it was a novel concept. That's when I decided to make it in Marathi. We just picked up the thought from the news and developed a plot around it.”
Being a director was on Talpade's mind for a long time. He said that though he was keen on making short films, Poster Boys happened because Sunny Deol showcased his trust on him.
“I always wanted to start off as a director with a short film but that would have been three-four years down the line. But when Sunny paaji asked me who would be directing it, I told him we haven't found a director. That is when he suggested I try my hand at it since I was involved in the original Marathi version as a producer and have also co-written it in Hindi,” said Talpade.
Shreyas's directorial debut has received a U/A certificate from the censor board which demanded only one cut in the original film.
“Now that we can't show corporal punishment in school, we had to do one cut in the film. Bobby Deol, who is playing the role of a teacher in a scene tells a child 'murga bano'. The CBFC told us to remove that scene.”
