'Avoid life. It kills you in the end.' That's the publicity slogan of PAANCH, produced by Tutu Sharma, who's produced a number of films in the past, including RAJKUMAR (Anil Kapoor – Madhuri Dixit) and ROCKFORD (Nagesh Kukunoor), and directed by Anurag Kashyap, who's scripted SATYA, SHOOL, KAUN? and penned dialogues of Deepa Mehta's WATER.

PAANCH was held up in the censors some time back. “But I was determined to fight back, no matter how much time it took to get the clearance certificate,” Tutu tells me, continuing in the same breath, “But the film was eventually passed with two minor cuts.”

PAANCH is the story of a five-member band called 'Parasites'. How they live together, fight together, stay together in their ordeal of surviving failure forms the crux of the film.

They want to make it in a world where opportunities are hard to come by and when they come, they come at a price they can't pay.

In order to get the money, they try to pull a trick that turns around on them. Music goes out of their lives and all they want to do is get out of the mess they have landed into. Friends turn into foes and in order to survive, double crossing begins.

It all begins when the band members meet a music agent Anish (Vijay Raj), who happens to be the friend of the only loyal audience that the band has – Nikhil (Pankaj Saraswat). Anish promises the world if they can manage a small amount of Rs. 5 lacs to get a private recording done.

But how can they manage a big amount like that? Nikhil comes up with an idea of staging a false kidnapping of himself (Nikhil) and ask his miser dad (Anand Mishra) for ransom. But things go wrong when Nikhil dies suddenly. What happens next?

The character sketches –

Shiuli (Tejaswini Kolhapure) is tomboyish, can be extremely sweet one moment and very manipulative the next. Has an acid tongue, a roving eye for rich boys and knows how to use her sexuality. She is the main singer of the group. Confronts things head on and is the most ambitious of the lot.

Luke (Kay Kay) is the leader of the group. He suffers from a major superiority complex. Is extremely impulsive and likes to be in control. He is extremely possessive about his group. Can be ruthlessly violent, manic and extremely anti-social and disrespectful. He plays all instruments, write the lyrics and sings too.

Murgi (Aditya Srivastava) is the conscience of the group. Stays calm and clear of trouble. He plays the base guitar for the group. He is always analysing things and is the most mature of the lot. He's the only one in the group that Luke respects.

Joy (Joy Fernandes) is the strong man of the group who worships Luke. And that makes him dangerous. His jokes and frowns are mostly to impress Luke and he laughs at the silliest of things. Very lazy and very dumb!

Pondy (Vijay L. Maurya) is the punching bag of the group. He is an introvert and a pessimist. His obsession to have sex with Shiuli is the cause of many a laugh the group gets. He plays the drum and plays them even better when it's Shiuli who's singing. He's the one who mostly creates problems and often the one who takes the brunt of everything that goes wrong.

PAANCH has music by Vishal Bharadwaj. It is slated for a mid-July release.