Umesh Kulkarni's Valu and Mangesh Hadwale's Tingya, which have created a buzz even at international festivals, consolidate this phenomenon. The two recent films also bridge the gaping rural and urban audience divide. Saade Made Teen, Checkmate and Kadachit too achieved this apart from creating ripples at the box-office as well as impressing critics. All of them have a strong storyline, offer variety and are packaged well, appealing to the traditional audience base of "pensioners and middle-age couples", as well as youths and urbanites.

What has helped the industry is the Government pitching in with subsidies, and investment by corporates as well as Bollywood producers and distributors. Gone are the days when films were made on a meagre Rs 16-lakh budget. Now, producers like Sarpotdar are spending as much as Rs 1.6 crore (for his upcoming Uladal) with the confidence of getting a good return.

And experts feel only 30 per cent of the market has been tapped as yet. The new frontier is abroad, and a step has been taken in this direction with a festival of 14 Marathi films scheduled to begin on May 14 in Mauritius.