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Anusha Dandekar on Juna Furniture: “People hate my nasty evil role and that’s a huge compliment”

Did you know that almost 20 years ago, charismatic Anusha worked with director Mahesh Manjrekar in a landmark movie starring Amitabh Bachchan?

Published

5 months ago

May 1, 2024

CB Desk

Anusha Dandekar at the premiere of Juna Furniture

By Chaitanya Padukone

Internationally popular (MTV shows fame) VJ-host-anchor-glam-model-entrepreneur-actress Anusha Dandekar is emotionally thrilled with the surging waves of responses to her realistic performance as the ‘evil avenging bahu’ Avani in the powerful social-thriller Marathi hit movie ‘Juna Furniture’ (Old Furniture). The hard-hitting regional social-emotional-thriller co-produced by Yatin Jadhav and Satya-Saiee Films, (which has its sub-titles in English) is directed by maverick genius Mahesh Manjrekar. Who has also brilliantly played the protagonist role of the aggrieved rebel senior citizen (Govind Pathak) who legally fights tooth and nail against being neglected by his indifferent IAS Officer son Abhay (Bhushan Pradhan).

In all probability, if all goes well, ‘Juna Furniture’ is likely to be released very soon, in its Hindi avataar-version titled ‘Puraana Furniture’, with all dialogues dubbed in Hindi.

Anusha Dandekar with Dir Mahesh Manjrekar and sr journalist Chaitanya Padukone

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Coming back to the vivacious, exuberant Anusha who spoke exclusively to me even as she was being mobbed for ‘selfies’ by her ardent fans. What was the biggest creative challenge of playing the lead role with negative evil shades in Juna Furniture? Reacts the articulate Anusha, “It’s a fabulous opportunity for me to level up and leap out of my glam goody-girl ‘comfort zone’ and prove to myself as well. Out here in ‘J-F’, I play a daughter-in-law who despite her evil streaks is more rational with her daring decisions. Yes, people hate my curt, nasty character Avani, that’s an indirect huge compliment because they are reacting to an intense stunning performance. Almost everyone came up to me and said they loved my fluent Marathi dialogues and even the long dramatic monologue. Among the heartfelt compliments I cherished were those from my sisters Apeksha and Shibani and my brother-in-law Farhan Akhtar. But I must share that although Marathi is my mother tongue, I attended diction classes, and my co-star Bhushan Pradhan was of immense pro-active help in helping me minimize my Australian accent and speak with correct diction-accent in my Marathi dialogues. As you will agree, ‘J-F’ with its generation-gap and family-centric hard-hitting subject has a global connect,” smiles Anusha.

Anusha Dandekar with guest Farhan Akhtar (left) and co-star Bhushan Pradhan

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Did you know that charismatic Anusha has already worked in the past with Mahesh Manjrekar as director in this landmark Amitabh Bachchan-Sharmila Tagore-John Abraham starrer movie Viruddh (2005)? Anusha shares her sentimental thoughts, “It’s an honour for me to be working with the super-talented Mahesh-Sir once -again in ‘Juna Furniture’ after almost 20 years. Now that I have acquired the regional lingo confidence, I would love to also work in some more Marathi movies besides Hindi of course Also I look forward to working on ‘phenomenal actor-director Mahesh-sir’s upcoming projects as well. Not just a commendable soulful screen performance, even as a mentor-director Mahesh-Sir brought out the best in me in ‘Juna Furniture’. It’s such a privilege to have great stalwart co-actors like Medha Manjrekar, Sachin Khedekar, Girish Oak, and Upendra Limaye,” insists ‘masst’ Maharashtrian ‘mulgi’ (girl) Anusha, who was recently seen anchoring the L’oreal Professional Hairdressing Awards 2024 on Jio Cinema critiqued by showman Karan Johar.