'Timepass' breaks a record at the box office

It is time we took regional films seriously too.

Ketki Mategoankar and Prathamesh Parab feature in 'Timepass'

Timepass, a Marathi film directed by Ravi Jadhav, which released on Friday, has managed to earn approximately Rs 5crore in its first weekend -- a feat unheard of in Marathi cinema -- and has also been getting positive feedback from critics.

Director Ravi Jadhav

Nikhil Sane, producer of the film, admits that he never expected such a huge response.

Sane says, "It was for the first time that we got nearly 250 screens for a film that means we had 6,000 shows in a week and all of them have been running houseful.

The previous record was held by Duniyadari (2013). However it made R5 crore over the entire week. We expect similar figures in two days once the official statistics come out. Going by Ravi's record, we knew that we will get good opening but no so big."

Jadhav, who has won National Awards for his films like Natarang and Balgandharva , says that it was his conscious decision to make a light-hearted love story with not-so-known faces from Marathi industry.

The director says,"It is a youth-centric film and the response is unbelievable. In fact, some of the theatre owners called me and told me that they have pulled out shows of some Hindi films and had to allot extra screens for my film which is a welcome change."