The film has been in the making for eight years with equal number of script writers working on it in as many years. ``The film will be ready by the year end,'' Phadke told the gathering assembled to his felicitation organised by a cultural group Swargandha.

Fondly called Babuji, Phadke is a household name across Maharashtra. He is associated with several hit Marathi numbers and has to his credit, Geet Ramayan, the musical series of the Ramayan written in a poetic form by noted Marathi poet, G D Madgulkar. The extremely successful series is just a part of Phadke's illustrious work.

``I have received a lot of love from my fans and from the people of Maharashtra. I am happy. Now I only wish to complete Veer Savarkar after which there will be nothing left for me to live for. The world needs to know Savarkar as he actuallywas,'' he said. Referring to the long time the film had taken he stated, ``I have had to accept a lot of criticism. But all I wish to do was is to give people the best. I stood by all my opinions which is it took long to complete.''

From the Marathi film industry Usha Kiran, Jaywant Kulkarni, Jagdish Khebudkar and Shrinivas Khale attended the felicitation while Bollywood was represented by music director Naushad Ali and playback singer Asha Bhonsale.

In his address Naushad praised Phadke's vast knowledge of music and Bhonsale called him her ``guru''. ``Once I called babuji and sang a particular tune to him. He calmly asked me to rehearse properly. Babuji follows up things thoroughly and that is precisely why what he gives is always the best. We would not get music directors like him today,'' Bhonsale said.