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Journalism of Courage
EVEN as political parties continue to fight over credit for compelling multiplexes to show Marathi movies during the evening hours,Kishore Belekar,director of the Marathi movie Sa….Sasucha,has resorted to an innovative way to attract audience. He is distributing over 2 lakh pamphlets in Mumbai and Pune appealing to people to watch the movie in a theatre,and if they dislike it,they can call him and give an earful.
The pamphlets distributed through leading Marathi dailies and other means appeal to people to come to theatres and watch the movie. If you (the audience) wont go to theaters then they (theatre-owners) would get a chance to say that there are no audience for Marathi movies, the pamphlet reads. If you find the movie unworthy,you can call on the numbers given and badmouth us for making a bad product, it adds.
Sa….Sasucha is horror movie – a rare genre in Marathi film industry. It released on August 27 and stars Marathi actors Sunil Barve,Sonali Kulkarni and Vinay Apte among others. The total budget of the movie is Rs 1.5 crore,Belekar said.
When we showed the movie at Central Plaza in Mumbais Girgaum (a traditional Maharashtrian belt) in the morning,there were hardly any takers. So,the theatres decided to show movies on a prime-time slot,but even then there was no audience, he said. The movie had to be pulled out of some theatres after a week. Its a fact that not all Marathi movies have an audience and giving them time-slots is not profitable. We can do little, said a manager of a theatre in Central Mumbai.
Though the MNS,Sena and the state have been taking credit for getting theatreowners to show Marathi movies during prime-time,the audience have still not been coming to theatres the way they come to watch Hindi or English movies.
Political parties fought over the issue,but none of these political leaders appealed to people to watch Marathi movies. Had they watched the movie,it would have created a different impact, Belekar said without mentioning Raj or Uddhav Thackeray. Raj Thackeray had released the music video and inaugurated his movies website.
Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said,As a political party we can fight if theatre- owners do not give slots to Marathi films. We can do little if audience dont come to theatres. Nevertheless,good movies are being watched by the people and Natarang is a classic example.
He (Raj Thackeray) has appealed to people to watch Marathi movies in theaters… even the industry should make quality Marathi movies. He can not pick any odd film and ask people to watch it, said MNS spokesperson and party MLA Nitin Sardesai.
