Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh are presently studio-hopping to promote the former’s directorial debut and the latter’s Marathi film debut Ved. They have also roped in big names in the Hindi film industry to promote the film, which also features Salman Khan in a song that has become a rage on social media and has already clocked 10 million views on YouTube.
While the couple is confident of the film’s success and seems to be enjoying their ride, the only downside, they say, they feel is the absence of Riteish’s father Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Riteish said his father always prodded him to work on Marathi projects and he would have felt great pride to see his son making his directorial debut with a Marathi project and his daughter-in-law acting in a Marathi movie.
Riteish also shared that his father always felt that Genelia was a better actor than him, right from when the two made their debuts with Tujhe Meri Kasam (2003).
“I remember we had arranged a trial show of Tujhe Meri Kasam and after the screening of the film, my father told me ‘Good Job! But she has acted better than you!’,” Riteish said in an interview with an India Today website.
“10 years later, when we made Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya together, he liked the film. But he told me ‘She is still better than you!’,” shared Riteish with the interviewer as Genelia blushed.
When their production house ‘Mumbai Film Company’ entered film production with Lay Bhaari in 2014, Vilasrao Deshmukh was no more.
“Although he wasn’t anymore, I wanted him to be a part of my experience of producing a Marathi film because he always wanted me to do that. So, whenever I am involved in a Marathi film, I write my name as ‘Riteish Vilasrao Deshmukh’, to make him a part of my experience,” shared the actor who has acted in several successful Hindi and Marathi films.
Ved is inspired by the 2019 Telugu film Majili starring Naga Chaitanya and his then-wife Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Ved’s songs, composed by Ajay-Atul, are already hitting the popularity charts.