Lots of Marathi films preponed their releases as there were no big Hindi or Pan-India south releases in January and early February. And they’ve done excellent business. But will this wave sustain?
The third wave of Covid-19 turned out to be another bad patch for the film industries all over India. Big-budget films which were scheduled to release throughout the month of January 2022 and the end of December 2021 got postponed, and so much so, even the movies for the first couple of weeks of February 2022 have been pushed ahead. However, the one film industry that had made merry in this time is the Marathi film industry.
As the main base for both the Marathi and the Hindi film industry is Maharashtra, therefore a tussle between the two always happens. Not in terms of scale or content, but in terms of the number of screens. The Marathi film industry always keeps cribbing about how they’re getting played as second fiddle while the Hindi film industry gets the lion’s share of the theatres. But it seems the third wave have sort of turned the tables the other way round.
With Hindi or other south-India based Pan-India released being stopped till at least the Valentine’s Day weekend, there has been a huge surge in the market of the Marathi films. There have been films who were supposed to release in February and March 2022, who pulled their releases earlier to January 2022 considering that there was no competition from the big ticket Hindi or South-Indian releases. This trick has paid off really well for the Marathi film industry.
Marathi films like ‘Coffee’, ‘Nay Varanbhat Loncha Kon Nay Koncha’, ‘Zombivli’, and a few others have done really well at the theatres even with just 50 percent occupancy allowed in theatres. Even this week’s release ‘Faas’ has got some great reception from audiences.
Talking about the same, popular film distributor Sameer Dixit, CMD of Pickle Entertainment, says, “Lots of films like ‘Zombivli’, ‘Faas’ and all have been preponed to take this advantage of this 50 percent rebate given till February 11. They’ve all done well. Mahesh Manjrekar’s ‘Varanbhat…’ did really well. Talking of the way ahead, yes, there is immense confidence amidst the Marathi filmmakers to continue with this wave. They’re confident that if in 50 percent occupancy in theatres we are able to bring in such good footfalls, then in 100 percent capacity we will do even better.”
Add to the same, Dixit says, “There is another angle to this which will come into play. Starting March 4, it will be exam season in schools, board exams, etc. During this month of March and April usually the youth oriented films try to stay clear of a release. There may be some very big films which will release, but Marathi films will still continue to make money more because its exam season as the youth oriented films in Hindi and others would try to push their release date to after the exams. So this will be an off season as colleges and schools might be opening up in full after almost 2 years, and there will be exams, and students will also be excited to go. So, the footfalls for the big releases might be less, and therefore their filmmakers might steer clear of a release. Therefore, these smaller Marathi films will manage to do well even that time also.”
The Marathi industry is also looking for a strong next few months with films like ‘Ek No’, ‘Hambirrao’, ‘Luck Down’, ‘Bai Pan De Ga Deva’ and many others lined up for release.