‘Bheja Fry’ director Sagar Ballary turns producer with ‘Bhatukali’
After directing his very first Hindi film ‘Bheja Fry’, writer-director Sagar Ballary is now entering into Marathi film industry in a different role. Sagar, under his own banner ‘Flower Film Family’ has produced his first Marathi film ‘Bhatukali’.
‘Bhatukali’ is a popular pass time game of children in Maharashtra, in which children assume role of elders in the house and carry out all the functions in exactly the same manner as that of their elders. They create their own family, own house, own relationships. The film tells the story of one such man who is immensely successful in his business, is surrounded by his family members who love him, yet there is something amiss. There is some sort of a disconnect between him and his family.
The film stars Ajinkya Deo, Shilpa Tulaskar, Smita Talvalkar, Sunil Barve, Shashank Shende & Kiran Karmarkar. New artistes Tanvie Kishore, Sameer Paranjpe and Saieel Shelar are making their debut. The film also marks the directorial debut of Sagar’s long time associate Rohit Joshi; who has also written the film. The music has been composed by Jasraj, Saurabh and Hrishikesh while the cinematography of the film has been captured by the man behind many award winning commercials Bijitesh De.
Commenting upon his debut in the Marathi film industry, Sagar says, “There are only two kinds of films – good films and bad films. ‘Bhatukali’ was made keeping this in mind, not keeping in mind linguistic barriers and budgets. It is our company’s first film and we have ensured to give it nothing but the best within our capabilities.”
Debutant writer-director Rohit Joshi says, “In today’s materialistic world, people have become more practical and emotions have taken backseat. I wanted to explore the world of one such person who has achieved everything, is surrounded by his family yet is very detached from it. It is a story of all of us, not just of that one person.
‘Bhatukali has been produced under the banner of Flower Film Family Pvt Ltd. which is a joint venture between Sagar Ballary and Hemal Shah, is slated to hit theatres on June 13th 2014.
Science fiction ‘Welcome to Jungle’ released
Who says that there are no Marathi films for children, this vacation? Marathi’s first science fiction film ‘Welcome to Jungle’ is released this Friday (23rd May) all over Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Marathwada. The film is set on the backdrop of a science laboratory housed in a dense forest and the happenings that follow, are unfolded in a mysterious manner, through the screenplay of the film.
According to the makers, 40% of the film is based on special effects, making an impact of the science fiction through the screenplay . Produced by Nitin Kulkarni and directed by Sanjay Jadhav , the film stars newcomer Devendra along with actress turned politician Deepali Syyed. Milind Shinde plays the lead important character , in the company of other artistes like Ruchita Jadhav, Tejashree Khele, Nitin Kulkarni, Dadu Ganesh Mayekar,Anil Rabade and Vijay Chavan. Highlight of the film is that actor-director Mahesh Kothare will make a special appearance in this film. Lyrics by Nitin Kulkarni & Jai Atre and music by Aishwary Malgave are other credits.
Music director Anand Modak is no more
Well known music director of Marathi films Anand Modak is no more. He passed away in Pune, today afternoon. Anand Modak had not only given music to Marathi films; but, had also composed music for some of Bollywood films like ‘Army’, ‘Bandish’ and ‘Disha’. Some of the recent Marathi films for whom he had composed the music, were ‘Dhoosar’, ‘Dambis’, ‘Aarambh’ & ‘Masaala’. Very recently, he was seen at the music release and first look of Jabbar Patel’s Marathi film ‘Yaswantrao Chavan – Bakhar Eka Vadalachi'; having composed music of that film. He was also felicitated by Mr. Sharad Pawar, during that function.
The news of his sudden death has shocked many artistes and his friends from Marathi entertainment industry. Many of them have displayed their condolence messages on social networking sites.
Pradeep Kabre grooms new acting talent
Veteran actor Pradeep kabre has kept himself active, offering training to youngsters and grooming them to be part of Marathi stage. Recently, he along with Sambhaji Sawant and Prasad Mestry, had organised a Drama training workshop, under the banner of Aarti Arts. The three week long workshop, which concluded on 16th May, offered complete training related to stage performance, also helped the trainees to develop their personality.
Mr. Kabre also felicitated the best students from the batch, in presence of actress Reshma Merchant, who was invited as a guest on the concluding day of the workshop. The participants who received appreciation were Sonal Ambavkar, Manali Jadhav, Chinmayee Paradkar, Khushi Merchant, Vishakha More, Sachin Kotulkar, Chaitanya Sarpotdar, Sumedh Sonavne, Sagar Gunjal & Manav Merchant.
Renowned sports persons attend MMW get together
Team of the popular portal MarathiMovieworld.com; on Marathi entertainment, has been working very hard for past few years, to popularise Marathi cinema worldwide. With increasing number of viewers and to meet their demands, They also started MMW awards in various categories for Marathi films, television and stage in 2012. The Viewer’s choice awards for the subsequent year, though announced, could not be presented, due to some unavoidable circumstances.
Now, before declaring nominations for the awards to be presented in 2014, we have decided to first give away the awards which were overdue. Accordingly, a get together of the 14 award winners was arranged in Mumbai, at the newly opened party hall ‘Pavilion’.
Team MMW, who had travelled all the way to Mumbai for this purpose, was slightly disappointed to notice poor attendance of the award winners. Some of whom had their genuine excuses, while others, in spite of promising him, failed to turn up. But, the sports persons did keep their promise. They had a very nice time, interacting with those few award winners; prominent among them being Shweta Pagar, who was adjudged as the ‘Fresh face of the year- 2012′ for her debut in the film ‘Shree Partner’ based on Va .Pu. Kale’s story.
In a friendly discussion that took place on the occasion, Shweta, who is herself a sportsperson, having acquired brown belt in Karate; had a great time in the company of Sonal Phadke, a former international level Indian Tennis star. Sonal, now lives in California, was on a short vacation to Mumbai; and when contacted, she agreed to be part of this event. While exchanging pleasantries with Shweta, she said that she had read stories of Pu.La. and Va.Pu, during her school days in Mumbai. She was more than happy to know about the progress of Marathi films.
Sanjay Nemlekar, former India ranked Table tennis player, took lot of interest while discussing the designing of posters and publicity of films with Nitin Supekar, who received a technical award for the film ‘Aik’. Many other sports persons also asked him questions about the changing trend observed in Marathi films and Nitin was more than happy to share his views.
It was a rare scenario at this beautiful location at Marine drive; where Team member expressed his gratitude to all those who were present and promised that ‘the show will go on’. “I really loved this location and hence decided to hold this event at 4 pm to adjust the schedule of two award winners, for their stage performance in late evening and also to avoid the late evening traffic problems. But, still, they could not make it. No problem, I am doing all this, to respect the viewers of my site, who have voted for these winners. Still, I wish to hold my next event here,” he said. Shweta Pagar, who was overwhelmed by her interaction also with former badminton international Leroy D’sa, at this venue, also paid visit to the huge air conditioned Billiards hall and watched World ranked Dhruv Sitwala in action, for a while. “I never knew that this building offers so many facilities. It’s a wonderful place,” she concluded.
Looking at the hard work put in by this young Team Member, to popularise the Marathi films, one only expects the artistes to find time to attend such meets, kept for them. Not all can afford to have functions in five star hotels and favourite venues of the stars. It is the ‘strength of mind’ and appreciation, that is important. Finally, what John Wooden has said, is important. “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” Keep it up , we are all with you.
‘Pahili Bhet’ launched with Sachin’s song recording
Known for his singing talent, actor-producer-director Sachin Pilgaonkar is back to the song recording studio. This time, it is for recording a song for producer Dayaram Gangwani’s new Marathi film ‘Pahili Bhet’. Incidentally, it was also the official launch of this film with the recording of the song in Sachin’s voice. The popular actor appeared in a completely different look, during this recording. This song is penned by Rajesh Bamugde and the music is by Sanjayraj Gaurinandan.
Director Sunil Parab will begin shooting of this film shortly, which will introduce a new hero Dilip Kumar. The other star cast of the film comprises of Arun Nalawade, Manasi Naik, Milind Shinde, Yatin Karyekar, Savita Prabhune, Shashikant kerkar and others.
‘Tujhi Majhi Love Story’ gives due respect to music with a grand launch
Not all the film makers launch the music of their film well in advance. But, film maker Rushikesh More thought of releasing the music of his film ‘Tujhi Majhi Love Story’ almost 50 days in advance, before scheduled date of release i.e. 4th July 2014. Today evening at Swatantryaveer Savarkar auditorium, Shivaji Park, the music of ‘Tujhi Majhi Love story’ was officially launched in a grand way, by not only showing the clippings of the songs; but, also presenting the live performance by the lead pair of the film Gaurav Ghatnekar and Shruti Marathe. Singer Rishikesh kamerkar also presented one song from the film live; while lyricist Aswini Shende, spoke about the liberties of the lyricist, while writing all the songs from the film.
” I always prefer such liberties, where the lyricist is given total freedom to write all the songs from the film. It enables the lyricist to focus on their creativity, according to different situations in the film. Therefore, I don’t approve the present trend of engaging multiple lyricists and music directors for one film,” said the award winning lyricist. She seemed to be happy with this film, being an intimate love story and even went on to request Rishikesh Kamerkar to sing few lines of her favourite song, in her presence; during their felicitation, by the director of the film. Ashwini also appreciated the efforts taken by the music directors Bapi Tutul while composing all the songs in this film. She was however missing Neha Rajpal on the occasion, as the latter could not make it. The director, however appreciated the physical presence of Ashwini for this function. According to him, she had removed the plaster around her leg, only to attend this function.
Gaurav Ghatnekar and Shruti Marathe gave a wonderful dance performance, which was highly appreciated by the audience. They were smartly dressed for the occasion. Both of them praised each other for their performances. After playing lead role in TV serial ‘Tujhvin Sakhya Re’ , this is the debut film of Gaurav Ghatnekar, who has also signed two more films. Gaurav looked very happy, as two of his teachers from Whistling Woods, were present for this function. He did not forget to mention about them. Gaurav is actually a perfect hero material for feature films; and his chemistry with Shruti in this film seemed perfect. At least, the songs and scenes picturised on both of them indicated this clearly. But, when you ask Gaurav, he is all praise for director Rushikesh More.
‘Mukkam Post Dhanori’ promises action thriller
Marathi films are becoming more and more technical. Today, people with software background are also entering into film making. Director duo Sudarshan warale and Mahesh Rajmane are making a new Marathi film ‘Mukkam Post Dhanori’, which they claim totally different from previous Marathi and Bollywood films.
Through “Mukkam Post Dhanori” they have tried to present a powerful female protagonist Pooja, an archaeological student, in a twisted thriller story. Niyati Ghate an expert in taekwondo, who plays Pooja, has been selected from a tough selection process, during audition. Along with her are her friends Ragu and Sameer who go to a remote village of Dhanori in search of an ancient treasure. On their way, they come across a stranger couple Ganu and Phulwa and thus begins the action thriller.
The film’s music is by Yugandhar Deshmukh, with popular singers like Bela Shende, Jasraj Joshi, Priyanka Barve & Mangesh Borgaonkar rendering their voices for variety of songs. The film is going beyond Marathi audience and hence have decided to release this film with English sub titles.
Are Marathi films facing competition among themselves?
The other day, we were talking to the team of forthcoming Marathi film ‘Zentleman’, during their first look. Replying to our question, whether their film would face competition from other Marathi films, when the film is released on 16th May ; veteran actress Usha Nadkarni, who is part of this film, spoke on behalf of their team. ” We are not concerned, whether there are three films or 10 films releasing along with our film. We are confident about our presentation,” she said. One could imagine the positive attitude of this popular actress; but, what if her two films were to be released simultaneously?
At the same function, we met Mr. Viju Khote, who was eager to know from media persons, about the response received for his film ‘Cappuccino ‘. He had already received the reactions from them for his film ‘Dhamak’, but not many had seen his other film ‘Cappuccino’. And, the reason given by some of those present that they could not attend the press show, due to other commitments that day. This is what happens when 3 or 4 Marathi are released simultaneously. The audience and the media persons have to make their own choice, which film to watch.
Now again, coming Friday, we are going to witness simultaneous releases of three Marathi films; namely ‘ Bhakarkhadi 7 km’, ‘Ek Hazarachi Note’ and Urmila Matondkar’s debut Marathi film ‘Aajoba’. Now, if we don’t call it a competition among themselves, then what is it ? And, we don’t think, it is a healthy competition. Right from acquiring theatres the competition begins. Then, it is marketing. Whichever film does the marketing well, succeeds in getting the audience at theatres. Those producers, who don’t have budget for marketing, suffer the most, in spite of making a better film. Today, even if they want to participate at international film festivals, there is a separate budget for that too.
Few years a ago, there was a time, when hardly 50 Marathi films were released during the year. But now, we find on an average 100 to 125 marathi films released during the year. Now, how many of them are actually able to find the audience at the theatre, is a big question? Also, when there are so many films released during the year, with more and more new producers; the state Government should seriously think about the granting subsidy only to those films, which are able to receive appreciation at film festivals and at the national and popular awards. It is not the competition from Hindi films; but Marathi films are facing competition among themselves; with such simultaneous releases.
‘Aandhali Koshimbir’ promises wholesome entertainment
Anuya Mhaiskar who produced films like ‘Sukhant’ and ‘Tendulkar Out’ and Aditya Ingale, who has assisted late Sanjay Surkar and independently directed his debut film ‘Paulvaat'; have come together to present a multi starrer entertainment through their forthcoming Marathi film ‘Aandhali Koshimbir’, which is due for release on 30th May 2014.
On Wednesday evening, the first look and music of this film was released in presence of media persons and cast and crew of the film. The so called Samrat of Marathi films-Mr. Ashok Saraf, who is playing an important role in this film, was present along with his wife Nivedita; besides Sunil Barve and Kavita Laad, who were invited as special guests, on this occasion. Since the event also coincided with the birthday of lead actor of this film-Aniket Vishwasrao, the hosts had also brought a big cake for Aniket, to celebrate the occasion, in a big way. After Aniket cut the cake, he did not forget to feed his beloved Pallavi Subhash, who was also present on the occasion. Another actress- Kshiti was also present on the occasion, to boost the morale of her husband Hemant Dhome.
While speaking on the occasion, Director Aditya Ingale promised that ‘Aandhali Koshimbir’ will offer wholesome entertainment for all age groups. After the Music of this film was released by actor Sunil Barve and Kavita Laad, the director said, “The film was launched on the birthday of Mr. Ashok Saraf and now the music and first look of the film is being released on Aniket’s birthday.” But, he forgot to mention that the film was being released on Mrunmayee’s birthday, who is playing one of the two leading ladies of this film. Mrunmayee was however absent on the occasion and so were Anand Ingale and Vandana Gupte, who are also part of this film.
Music also playing an important part of this film, the hosts had invited lyricist Vaibhav Joshi, Music director Narendra Bhide, title music/ background music providers Avinash – Vishwajeet and singer Janhavi Prabhu Arora and requested them to talk about their experience in the film. However, the discussion among the artistes of the film was filled with humour, with upcoming comedian Hemant Dhome and versatile actor Hrishikesh Joshi narrating some fun filled moments during the shooting schedule. While birthday boy Aniket Vishwasrao couldn’t control his laughter during his speech; popular star Ashok Saraf said that he had a great time, during the entire shooting schedule, in the company of the entire cast of the film. He was all praise of director Aditya and said that he would be soon counted as one of the top directors of Marathi film industry.
‘Aandhali Koshimbir’ will have representation of three generations, with the pairings of Ashok Saraf & Vandana Gupte, Anand Ingale & Hrishikesh Joshi and the youngsters comprising of Aniket Vishwasrao, Hemant Dhome, Priya Bapat Kamat, Mrunmayee Deshpande. Late Shrikant Moghe has a guest appearance in this film. With so many artistes in the team, it is certainly a big budget film; and while answering to a question raised by MarathiMovieWorld.com, the makers admitted that they made the film within their allocated budget, for which the credit goes to Nitin Vaidya and Satish Awasthi executive producer and co producer respectively.