There is a big challenge in doing action-filled love story - Chandrakant Kanse

Every film director has a wish to make his debut with a good story. In the case of Chandrakant Kanse, who has directed a few TV serials, it was his wish to begin his independent film direction with a children’s film. But when his actor-director friend Ankush Choudhary, whom he had assisted in his film ‘Zhakaas' , approached him with the script of ‘Dagadi Chaawl’, he just couldn’t say no. “Firstly, the script was good and there was a big challenge in doing an action-filled love story,” said Chandrakant Kanse, when we met him recently.
 
Speaking about the selection of other artistes besides Ankush Choudhary, Chandrakant said, “To play the role of Daddy, there was only one actor in my mind. So we approached Makarand Deshpande. To play a middle class good looking girl living in a chaawl, Pooja Sawant was my first choice.”
 
When asked as to how he prepared for this subject, Chandrakant said that as a schoolboy, he had seen a sword fight on the streets between two rival groups in 1993 at places like Lalbaug, Byculla and Abhuday Nagar. The story of this film is set on the backdrop of the 90’s, when Dagadi Chaawl had become a place infamous for gang war activities.

“I took up this film because it is not just a film on gang wars which we have seen in some of the past films. But it presents a good love story, which is later linked with Dagadi Chaawl, as the hero of the film gets involved into a street fight by accident. Therefore, this film is a social film and not a gang war film” said Chandrakant, explaining the plot of his film.     
 
Chandrakant is actually an actor-turned-director. He was first introduced in this field, by actor Kamlesh Sawant. Later, he worked with Rajesh Deshpande and then on his own with TV serial projects, besides assisting Sanjay Jadhav in films like ‘Fakta Ladh Mhan’ and ‘Pyarwali Love Story’. “I didn’t focus much on acting, as there were many from my area who had turned popular actors. So I thought of doing something different in this film industry and turned towards direction,” he concluded, with a smile on his face.