It is tough to decide what must be retained and edited out of his life. It's a mammoth life of a magnanimous man," says director Abhijeet Panse of his muse Balasaheb Thackeray. Highlighting that the team behind his film — based on the life of the politician — has four hours of material to work with, Pande describes the process of trimming it down to half to suit the feature format, as a challenge.

There's a lot that the makers wish to retain, one among them being the fact that Thackeray was a cartoonist. Pointing out to his rise as a politician, he says, "His observation [skills] and empathy made him [aware] about people's problems, which contributed to his [achievements]. I have known Balasaheb for many years, and was constantly in touch with his family."