7 Years of Sairat (29/04/2016)

“After the release of the Sairat, three families in Mumbai reconciled, including that of Sachin Lokhande. He had waited for 12 years for his Muslim girlfriend’s family to agree to their marriage. However, after watching Sairat, his parents finally approved of their marriage. The film’s fans also formed an organization called the Sairat Marriage Group, with almost 100 volunteers across Maharashtra. This group aimed to assist runaway couples who were facing similar issues due to caste or religion differences.”

Sairat is a Marathi-language romantic tragedy film released in 2016. Directed by Nagraj Manjule and produced by himself under his banner Aatpat Production along with Nittin Keni and Nikhil Sane under Essel Vision Productions and Zee Studios. The film stars Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar in their debuts and tells the story of two young college students from different castes who fall in love, leading to conflict between their families.

Manjule conceived the story in 2009, based on his own experiences of caste discrimination, but abandoned it when he found it uninteresting. He returned to the story after making Fandry (2013) and completed its script in the following year. Manjule wrote the screenplay, while his brother Bharat wrote the dialogues.

The film was shot in Manjule’s village, Jeur in Karmala Taluka of Solapur district in Maharashtra. Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti was the director of photography, and Kutub Inamdar edited the film.