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Published 13:07 IST, May 18th 2020

Riteish Deshmukh's 'Banjo' trivia: A tribute to Mumbai's musical ghettos

Here are some lesser-known facts about Riteish Deshmukh's movie Banjo. The film is a tribute to Mumbai's musical ghettos and the musical instrument banjo.

Reported by: Surabhi Sabat
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Banjo is a 2016 released musical drama film which was directed by Ravi Jadhav and featured Riteish Deshmukh, Luke Kenny, and Nargis Fakhri in lead roles. The film was produced under Eros International banner. The film received mixed reviews at the box office; however, Riteish Deshmukh's fans loved the musical film which was instrumental in shedding light and raising awareness on the old musical instrument called banjo as well as the rappers living in Mumbai's ghettos. The movie focused on a small music group playing the banjo who mainly played Mumbai styled music. Their music catches the attention of a budding American singer who wants to take the music to the international level. 

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Rock On!! star Luke Kenny's fifth movie as an actor

Farhan Akhtar's Rock On!! costar Luke Kenny played a pivotal role in Banjo. He played the role of Mickey a.k.a. Mic. He was later seen as hired mercenary Malcolm Murad in the Netflix India series Sacred Games as well as Aurangzeb in Ajay Devgn starrer Tanhaji. His first Bollywood movie as an actor was Bombay Boys in 1998, post which he did 13th floor, Rock On!!, Rise of the Zombie and Banjo. 

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Banjo was Nargis Fakhri's fifth release in 2016

Nargis Fakhri, who made her name with movies like Rockstar, Main Tera Hero and Azhar, was seen in five movies in the year 2016. In 2016, she was seen in many movies like Saagasam, Azhar, Housefull 3, Dishoom, and Banjo

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Dharmesh Yelande's third film as an actor

With the movie Banjo, dancer, choreographer, and actor Dharmesh Yelande featured in his third Bollywood movie. He earlier played pivotal roles in movies like ABCD which also starred Prabhu Deva, Kay Kay Menon, Ganesh Acharya, Punit Pathak, Salman Yusuff Khan, and Lauren Gottlieb, and ABCD 2 alongside Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhu Deva, Punit Pathak, Lauren Gottlieb, Raghav Juyal. In Banjo, he played the character of Grease

Riteish Deshmukh played a Maharashtrian character in Banjo

Riteish Deshmukh made his venture into Marathi movies recently compared to his Hindi movies. However, he has often played roles where his characters were Maharashtrian. Banjo was the 4th movie wherein the actor portrayed a Marathi character. Previously he was seen playing a Marathi character in movies like F.A.L.T.U., Heyy Babyy, Ek Villain. However, he made his debut in the Marathi film industry with the movie Lai Bhaari. 

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Promo Image courtesy: Eros Now YouTube

Updated 13:07 IST, May 18th 2020

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