Marathi films competing with Hindi blockbusters

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Pune, May 12:: Marathi filmmakers in Pune have welcomed the move by Mumbai police to suspend the licenses of 35 theatres for not screening Marathi movies at all or the stipulated number in a year. It is compulsory for the theatre owners to screen Marathi movies for at least four weeks a year.

The suspension, say the fraternity members, came at the right time, as Marathi films are now coming into their own and in many cases having a better run than Bollywood films.

It was Shwaas, a Marathi film that started the trend when it got nominated for the Oscar. Since then many Marathi films have done well at the box office, thanks to their strong content and novel story line.

“I will go further and say that the government should keep one screen reserved only for Marathi cinema, in multiplexes,” said actor turned producer Ashwini Bhave whose film Kadachit ran successfully for 15 weeks at City Pride multiplex in Pune.

“That Marathi films don’t do business is a wrong notion. In one of the multiplexes in Mumbai, for a day my film drew more audience than Taare Zameen Par and other Hindi films released in that week,” added Bhave.

Owner of City Pride Arvind Chaphalkar has some figures to back Bhave’s statements. “Recently released films like Valu, Checkmate and Amhi Satpute are doing fantastic business. On an average these films have 75 per cent viewership for more than 10 weeks. On weekends we see audiences queuing up to buy tickets for watching Marathi movies,” he said.

According to sources, Valu has made Rs three crore in 100 days and is still going strong.

Virendra Chitrav, president of Maharashtra and Goa chapter of Federation of Film Societies in India agreed. “It is baseless to say that people don’t watch Marathi movies. Big players like Subhash Ghai and Zee TV have shown interest in producing Marathi movies. Last year, 100 Marathi films were produced and this year’s target is 125,” he said adding that Marathi films have received an overwhelming response in small towns too. “But good films do not reach these towns. We need to have a mechanism in place to distribute Marathi films in smaller towns,” he said.