Two veteran actors of Indian cinema, Sharmila Tagore and Amol Palekar, have chosen a Marathi film about layers of man-woman relationships to mark new milestones in their eventful careers.

The film in question is "Samantar”, a home production of Palekar whose script has been done by his wife Sandhya Gokhale.

While 62-year-old Tagore makes her debut in a Marathi movie, Palekar, 64, returns to a lead role on the big screen after 22 years.

Palekar, who is wearing the hats of producer, director and actor in the film, says the movie is a "fascinating" insight into many layers of relationship between man and woman and will be released in early 2009.

Asked by the media why he chose Sharmila Tagore, a Bengali, to act in a Marathi movie, Palekar said initially there were apprehensions about that but once the project began, all thosb were overcome.

Besides, Palekar said he has always admired Tagore as a great actress and is confident that Marathi people will get to see that in "Samantar".

To a question, Tagore said she did have some apprehensions about acting in a Marathi film but went ahead accepting it as a challenge.

Palekar acknowledges that combining the roles of producer-director actor was stressful but he liked the script of the film instantly and so much so that he agreed to don all the three hats. Amol Palekar and Sharmila Tagore.

The film is being financed by the Big Picture, an arm of t

Reliance Entertainment a

promoted by Anil Ambani, one of s India's top industrialists, who has r decided to foray into film s production in a big way. s

Palekar denied suggestions that he had hade goodbye to acting before "Samantar" and said that he had not been getting roles to his liking. "I had never said that 1 will not act again," he said.