MUMBAI: Riteish Deshmukh is genuinely one of the most loved celebrities in Bollywood. It is no small wonder then, that when the Marathi mulga turned producer and released his latest Marathi film ‘Balak Palak’, a majority of the industry turned up to wish their favourite ‘son of the soil’.

Riteish recently held a special screening of ‘Balak Palak’ (BP) for his friends and family in B’town. The film opened to lavish praise from his near and dear ones, who gave the Marathi film a double thumbs up. At the screening we spotted the Deshmukh clan: Riteish, Genelia, his brother Dheeraj and Dheeraj’s wife Honey Bhagnani all cheering on Riteish.

Also present were Abhishek Bachchan (in a curious lime green shirt which we didn’t know what to make of!), 90’s comedy King Govinda in an unusually sober avatar, Suniel Shetty, Anusha Dandekar, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Akshay Kumar who has co-starred with Riteish most recently in ‘Housefull 2’, Indra Kumar, Sajid Khan and his girlfriend Jacqueline Fernandez, Vishal Dadlani and Shreyas Talpade. Also on the guest list was Viveik Oberoi with his heavily pregnant wife, Marathi actors Subodh Bhave, Shashwati Pimplikar, Supriya Pathare and Marathi film director Ravi Jadhav.

The wishes came pouring in on twitter as well, with Riteish receiving many congratulatory messages from his Bollywood friends.

Riteish tweeted: “Today I debut as a producer with my Marathi film BP #BalakPalak – absolutely proud of it. #GarvAaheMala”, to which his good friend Farah Khan promptly retweeted “Mala bhi tere upar Rits” which literally means I’m also proud of you! Abhishek Bachchan tweeted: “Saw 1 of the most beautiful films last night #BalakPalak a must watch. So proud of my lil bro @Riteishd for producing this gem. Well done!!”

We hope Balak Palak scales new heights of success, and firmly entrenches Riteish as a formidable producer to reckon with! All the best “Rits”!