Why Bollywood is jumping on the Marathi cinema bandwagon

Before his film Singham Returns released director Rohit Shetty held a press conference along with the makers of the Marathi film Rege mdash director Abhijit Panse coproducers Ravi Jadhav and actor Mahesh Manjrekar mdash to announce that they had decided to share theatre screens in Mumbai with RegeFrom left Dilip Prabhavalkar Hrishikesh Joshi and Pooja Sawant in the recentlyreleased Marathi film Poshter Boyz which is enjoying a good run at the box officeWhile Manjrekar feels that it was a nice gesture from Shetty this is not for the first time that the director has gone ahead and accommodated a Marathi filmWhile it was a smart move by the director his lead actor Ajay Devgn has also declared that he is producing the upcoming Marathi movie Vitti Dandu In fact Devgn is the latest Bollywood star to join the bandwagon of actors who are attracted to Marathi cinemaIt is clear that Marathi films have started to garner the attention of the Hindi film industryLast year during the release of the Shah Rukh Khanstarrer Chennai Express the issue of sharing screens arose when the successfullyrunning Marathi film Duniyadari was going to get pulled out from theatres due to Shettyrsquos film Regardless Manjrekar thinks it is definitely a positive sign as far as commercial sense is concernedldquoI will not call it as competition because with the availability of many multiplexes there is space for all types of cinema However because of the sudden boom in the business of Marathi films Hindi film industry folk are showing interest Earlier we had only good subjects but no money to show But now with the kind of collection Lai Bhaari Poshter Boyz and even Rege has got I feel more and more cash flow will be inrdquo says ManjrekarShreyas Talpade has turned producer with Poshter Boyz According to the actorturnedproducer the movie is getting good feedback on social media Talpade admits that because of the audiencersquos loyalty Hindi filmmakers are taking notice of Marathi film release dates and are avoiding clashes ldquoThe audience is supporting Marathi films like never before With each passing day the movies are getting bigger and better So you can see that excitement in the audience mdashThey are so loyal If they come to know that Hindi filmmakers have stopped the release of Marathi films they boycott the former There are no small or big films it is just that they have different budgets and Hindi filmmakes have realised this truthrdquoHow they coexistIf one takes a look at Mumbai and Punersquos film distribution around 7080 per cent people watch Hindi films while the rest watch Marathi movies Vikas Kadam who pinpoints this statistic has been assisting Rohit Shetty for several years and is now all set to make his directorial debut with Vitti Dandu He believes that the two industries have been coexisting for many years and do not have an impact on each other However in the rest of Maharashtra the ratio is quite the opposite ldquoTherefore I donrsquot think that Marathi or Hindi cinema impact each otherrdquo he says ldquoA few years ago Marathi films by the likes of Laxmikant Berde Mahesh Kothare and Sachin Pilgaonkar used to do well However due to improved marketing techniques now there are collection figures to refer to I feel the money is coming but the system should become clear so that we will know the real figuresrdquo adds KadamUnfair comparisonsComparing Bollywood with Marathi film industry is unfair given the formerrsquos reach on a global scale But even a small dent in market share of a regional film is noted Vishal Anand head of operations and sales at Fun Cinema admits that there is definitely a change in distribution of screens as demand for Marathi films is increasing ldquoLai Bhaari has been one of the biggest grossers of the year in Marathi It collected R22 lakh on the opening day which was pretty good Moreover when Kick released we still allotted four screens to Lai Bhaari and one screen to Kick as shows in some areas of Mumbai ran to packed houses Theatres are also willing to give more screens to such films because it finally helps them earn revenuerdquo said Anand