Marathi cinemas future seems bright

The event started with an audio- visual presentation of the clippings of various films like Ram Shastri,Sant Tukaram,Pinjra,Maaherchi Sadi,Shwaas and Harishchandrachi Factory that have been landmark movies in the history of Marathi cinema. Later,Dr Agashe started off the discussion by asking the panelists the influence of yesteryear cinema on their work. While Sumitra Bhave said that as a child she watched movies only once a month in Pune thanks to her friends father who was the manager of a theatre,Sunil Sukhthankar,Sachin Kundalkar and Umesh Kulkarni said that they were introduced to true Marathi cinema as well as international movies at the Film And Television Institute of India FTII in Pune. While all of them were exposed to different movies at various phases of their lives,the panelists were unanimous when they said that they dont have a specific target audience in mind while making films.

Bhave said,For me,filmmaking is not a business. I make movies for myself. Some of my works have had a huge audience while others have been watched by few people. But I dont feel bad about it.

Similarly,Kulkarni and Mokashi opined that they will continue making films that they want to make. Kulkarni,whose Vihir has been produced by AB Corp,said,I want people from all across the country to see my movies,but having said that I will never change my style of working or the kind of movies that I want to make just to appease them.

Satish Manwar was the only exception when he accepted candidly that he deems his work commercial. He said,When I make a movie,I want more people to watch it ,so in that sense I want my work to be commercial. According to me,parallel and commercial cinema are interdependent on each other. Today since Rajinikanth is popular in southern cinema,even parallel movies in those states are surviving because the audience is getting an opportunity to watch both kinds of cinema.

This led to the next question that should marketing be given prime importance to draw audiences to theatres,to which Bhave retorted, I have been asked on several occasions why I do not market my films to draw larger crowd to theatres. If I were asked to make a choice between marketing movies to attract a larger audience and only making films,I will choose the latter because filmmaking is a passion for me.

Sukhthankar also narrated an incident wherein he reiterated that apart from filmmakers,the viewers and distributors too play key roles in drawing audiences to theatres. He said,When we were screening Doghi,which was about how women are ostracised due to superstitious beliefs,in a village in Maharashtra,the locals found a catharsis through another film that was released at that time Maaherchi Saadi,which was about the importance of girl child. While that film went on to become a hit,our movie was perceived as an art- house work that was suitable for screening at festivals. The word spread accordingly. So,most of the times,the distributors and viewers are to be blamed for stereotyping our works and branding us as festival directors.

However,all the filmmakers firmly believed they need to constantly experiment. Kundalkar said,If the audience continues to be stuck in the past and become nostalgic,then the future of Marathi cinema seems bleak. I would want to see Marathi filmmakers making murder mysteries and sci-fi movies. Kulkarni couldnt agree more. He said,Even today we make movies that cater to the middle-class. I hope in the future,we make short films and documentaries that will be be screened in theatres. I believe this can happen due to digitalisation that is the next big thing in the world of cinema. He was seconded by Mokashi who said,Our biggest challenge is to reach out to the audience because right now we face a lot of hurdles in terms of getting a producer,distributor and being accepted by the public. Once we are able to achieve that,there will no looking back.

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