Marathi movies score over Hindi counterparts at BO

The year started with a bang for Marathi films as Atul Kulkarni’s ‘Natrang’,Mahesh Manjrekar’s ‘Shikshancha Aicha Gho’ and Paresh Mokashi’s ‘Harishchandrachi factory’.

All these films did very well at the Box Office.

According to trade sources,the box office collections of Marathi movies was over Rs 20 crore.

Ajay Sarpotdar,President of the Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal said that 2010 has started off brilliantly for the regional cinema.

Movies like ‘Harishchandrachi..’ ‘Natrang’,’Zenda’ and ‘Shikshancha..’ earned about Rs 16 crore. While ‘Ringa Ringa’,’Vihir’ (selected in competition section of Berlin film festival) has collected about Rs 4-5 crore,he said.

As far as B-town goes,Karan Johar’s ‘My Name is Khan’ (MNIK) is the only hit so far. Ajay Devgan’s ‘Athiti Tum Kab Jaoge’ was an above average film while Naseeruddin Shah-Arshad Warsi-Vidya Balan starrer ‘Ishiqiya’ was acclaimed by critics,trade sources said.

“Apart from MNIK and ‘Athiti…’,no other film has done well. 2010 has kicked off disastrously for the Hindi movies,” Trade Analyst Tarun Adarsh said.

According to boxofficeindia.com,a film trade website,My Name is Khan’s net gross so far was Rs 73 crore while that of ‘Athiti’.. was Rs 26 crore.

However,runaway success of ‘Three Idiots’,which hit the screens in December 2009 netted a gross of Rs 202 crore,it said.

But the BO figures of Bollywood were relatively low when compared to the number of releases it had over its Marathi counterpart.

This quarter Bachchan’s ‘Rann’ and ‘Teen Patti’ were flops,Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Karthik calling Karthik’,Shahid Kapur’s ‘Chance Pe Dance’,Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Pyar Impossible’,Sunny Deol’s ‘Right Ya Wrong’ too failed to click at the BO. Salman Khan’s much talked period drama ‘Veer’ saw success in few circuits but was overall poor.

According to Amod Mehra,another trade analyst MNIK has managed to recover 90 per cent of its costs. “All the other movies have lost money,” he said.

On Dibakar Banerjee’s ‘Love Sex Aur Dokha’,Adarsh said it has earned Rs 6 crore in the opening week.

“LSD is a new age cinema which has evoked extreme reactions from the audience,” he said.

Singer and TV host Aditya Narayan’s debut movie ‘Shaapit’ grossed around Rs 5 crore in the first week. It did well in circuits like CP Berar and CI on strength of single screens but that will not be enough for the film cover costs.

Also,both Hindi and Marathi films had their share of controversies in the first quarter,keeping them in constant spotlight.

The first quarter also saw politics interfering with the industry.

SRK’s comments lamenting the absence of Pakistani players in the IPL invited Sena’s ire. The party threatened to stall the release of ‘My Name Is Khan’,which was released amid high security,first for a movie.

Marathi films– ‘Zenda’,depicting the Thackeray family feud and ‘Shikhshancha aiya gho’,taking a critical view of the present education system,also faced opposition.

Revenue Minister Narayan Rane’s son Nitesh forced producers of ‘Zenda’ to postpone the release of the film objecting to a character which was modelled on his father,a former Shiv Sena leader. The movie had to be released with changes as demanded by Nitesh.

Objections were also raised on the title of Manjrekar’s film ‘Shikshancha Aicha Gho’ saying that it was “derogatory” but he stuck to his guns saying the film potrays the ills in the prevailing education system and was named aptly.

Marathi films also did well in awards functions and festivals.

Marathi film ‘Jogwa’ was adjudged as the best social film in the 56th National awards announced for 2008. It won five national wards,bagging the best actor (male) won by Upendra Limaye and best music for this film by Ajay-Atul.

‘Harischandrachi..’ won the best Marathi film award. It was the Indian entry into the foreign film category at the Oscars while ‘Vihir’ produced by Amitabh Bachchan’s A B Corp figured in the competition section at Berlin Film Festival.

On the current declining Box Office collections of Marathi films including just released ‘Vihir’,Sarpotdar said it has come down primarily due to the ongoing IPL.

“The collections are not encouraging at present. But,the entire entertainment industry has suffered due to IPL. We are looking forward to releases in April-May. Mahesh Manjrekar’s ‘Lalbaug Parel’ on the 1982 mill strike in Mumbai would be an interesting watch,” he said.

But Amod Mehra had a word of caution for Marathi cinema.

“No doubt,the film industry is doing well. However,there is over production of Marathi films. The novelty factor will be worn off. Budgets of Marathi films which hovered around Rs 25 lakh earlier,has increased to Rs 2.5 crore,” he said.

However,audiences will be awaiting many Hindi releases this summer including Sajid Nadiadwala’s multi-starrer ‘Housefull’,’Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ravan’ and Hrithik Roshan’s ‘Kites’ followed by Prakash Jha’s political thriller ‘Raajneeti’.