* When Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor-starrer Agent Vinod, made on a budget of at least R60 crore, released in Kolkata this March, multiplexes didn?t hesitate to cut down shows in the first week itself because two Bengali films, director Anjan Dutt?s Abar Byomkesh and Anik Dutta?s Bhooter Bhabishyot, were running to packed houses and demanding more shows.

* Producers of upcoming Punjabi film Saddi Love Story set for an October release, are already planning marketing and publicity for this Jimmy Shergill outing, a huge draw in Punjabi films.

* When Nikhil Mahajan, who studied at the Sydney Film School, wanted to make a film, he chose Marathi simply because he wanted to ?see a good Marathi film?. He is busy making his first film, Pune-52.

Both Marathi and Bengali films are in the midst of a major transition. Budgets have grown from Rs.40-50 lakh to R1-3 crore; young entrepreneurs are willing to invest in regional films and well-known production houses are including at least five to six regional films in their film slate to mitigate risks. The appetite for regional films has grown too, thus prompting professionals to be interested in the industry and multiplexes to increase screening of regional cinema.

Take Marathi cinema for example. In the past nine years, there has been a metamorphosis, with young, educated film makers entering this segment. From cheap comedies and formula films in the ?80s and ?90s to cinema with a conscience, Marathi cinema is making an attempt to push boundaries. Several factors are triggering this change. Budgets have grown from R30-40 lakh to R2.5-3 crore. Marketing spends have also increased and significantly major production houses are getting involved in Marathi cinema. Mukta Arts, AB Corp Zee Telefilms and Reliance Entertainment all have plans to produce Marathi films. Film personality Mahesh Manjrekar and Pune-based developer Aniruddha Deshpande have also come together to establish ?Great Maratha Entertainment LLP?, a venture to work on different verticals in the entertainment business to make it function more like a corporate house.

?The involvement of major production houses in Marathi films is heartening,? says director Umesha Kulkarni who is known for his films such as Valu, Vihir, Deool and Masala. ?Marathi cinema was earlier divorced from reality and from today?s world view. The entry of young directors with a fresh approach has changed that and is bringing back audiences to theatres where content is king,? he adds. Kulkarni?s film Valu was distributed by Mukta Arts. His production company Arbhaat Nirmitee, formed along with national award winning actor Girish Kulkarni, involved AB Corp in the second production. UTV Motion Pictures was involved in marketing of Harishchandrachi Factory, which was selected for the Oscars. Big Pictures, a Reliance Group company, entered Marathi films through Amol Palekar?s Samaantar. In the next three years, the major production houses are expected to add around R35-40 crore to make 15-20 Marathi films.

When Romit Dasgupta, director, Globsyn Innoventure, moved back to Bengal from the US in 2007, he began to watch the Bengali film industry closely. ?Over the past four years, the number of Bengali films released has increased and that made us want to be a part of the industry as well,? he says. In 2006, the number of Bengali films that were released was pegged at 45, which increased to 110 in 2010. Dasgupta and four other partners are getting ready to release their first film, Aborto, by well-known Bengali actor Arindam Sil, which will be ready November this year. ?For the R1-crore budget, we put in 50% and the rest by director Sil,? says Dasgupta.

Arijit Dutta, MD, Priya Cinemas in Kolkata, points out that the Bengali film industry has seen a resurgence of urban genre films. ?We are seeing 50-60 releases of urban-centric films, but there has been a drop in commercial, mass-based films,? he says. ?Earlier, we would see commercial Bengali films running for 10 weeks in a row, now that has dropped to two to three weeks. Audience preferences are changing,? Dutta adds. The Bengali film industry is touching R100 crore now (the Hindi film industry is worth R4,000 crore) and the Punjabi film industry is pegged at R50 crore, while the Marathi film industry ?still has a long way to go to before it crosses the R100-crore barrier?.

Nandu Ahuja, senior VP, distribution, Eros says its upcoming Punjabi film, Saddi Love Story, co-produced with Jimmy Shergill, will be released in 60-70 theatres. ?With the Punjabi diaspora a strong market too, recoveries have improved,? says Ahuja. He adds Punjabi films are now getting a wider release after a string of successes in the past two years.

Need for corporatisation

?Corporatisation of Marathi films is bringing in capital, enabling this cinema to reach out to a wider audience. Individual producers do not have this kind of bandwidth, which the corporates bring to the table. In the past five to seven years, film budgets have increased five times, but film makers are still waiting for better returns. Very few films are recovering money,? Kulkarni rues.

Shrirang Godbole, chairman, Indian Magic Eye Motion Pictures, a Pune-based film production house, says footfalls have increased and this has attracted major production houses to Marathi cinema. ?Marathi films have smaller budgets in comparison to Hindi films, where revenues largely depend on the opening. However, in regional cinema, budgets are smaller and there are more chances of recovering revenues,? Godbole says. Ahuja points out that Marathi films are slow starters, but gain immense strength from word-of-mouth and improve from week to week. Corporates, however, need to have a more sustained run in Marathi cinema instead of doing single projects, says Godbole.

The call of the diaspora

Marathi, Bengali and Punjabi films have begun to reach out to international audiences as well. Valu, directed by Umesh Kulkarni, became the first Marathi movie to be screened at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. Mukta Arts recently bought the worldwide distribution rights for the film. Bengali films are now screened in Los Angeles and top Tollywood star Prosenjit and filmmakers like Rituparno Ghosh are a big draw in the Bengali diaspora in the US and the UK. Punjabi films also do well overseas, especially in Canada.

Industry players agree that digitisation of prints has helped regional films reach out to a wider audience. For Marathi films Masala and Deool, there were some 350 shows and 10 prints, while the rest was digitised, says Kulkarni. This helped reduce costs by 50% and enabled distributors to release the film across different areas simultaneously, he explains. The marketing spend has increased as well and from a single or couple of print advertisements, filmmakers are now putting in 10-15% aside as marketing budgets for regional films.