Single Screen Theatres observe 7 day strike
The business of single screen theatres is in distress due to special concessions offered to multiplexes. Moreover, Entertainment tax, Show tax, Advertisement tax and rising piracy has also affected their business.
In order to invite the attention of the Government, since yesterday about 650 Single screen theatres all over Maharashtra have shut down their business for 7 days. The bandh is supported by Cinema Owners & Exhibitor’s Association, Cine Circuit Association and Marathwada Chitrapat Association
Popular Marathi film-stars Join MNS Cine Wing
Popular Marathi stars in a big number have been joining MNS Cine Wing. Thanks to the month long membership campaign held by Ms. Shalini Thackeray, General Secretary of the Maharastra Navnirman Chitrapat Karmachari Sena ( MNCKS). Till now, their unit has enrolled around 10,000 technicians, artists and workers from the film industry and is expected to cross the 25,000 mark in coming month. On Thursday, some more top artistes from Marathi like superstar Makrand Anaspure, Ajinkya Deo, Prasad Oak, Sayaji Shinde, Priya Berde, Vinay Yedekar along with others accepted the leadership of Raj Thackeray led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, in the battle of promoting Marathi cinema in Maharashtra.
Makarand Anaspure in particular, expressed his gratitude towards Raj Thackeray and MNS for helping out Marathi film industry in the time of crisis. Mr. Anaspure also expressed his desire to sort out the existing problems faced by Marathi films right from the promotion and advertising to availability of theatres, especially multiplexes; during prime time, to release the films.
Leading Marathi star Prasad Oak thanked MNCKS for their support, while Sayaji Shinde, emphasized the need of unity among cine artistes. Ameya Khopkar, President of the association, said that more and more artistes were coming forward to enroll for the membership of their wing, because of thei faith in Mr. Rajsaheb Thackeray.
Don Ghadicha Daav’ to release on 25th March
Kanchan Adhikari’s so called suspense thriller ‘Don Ghadicha Daav’ is all set to release on 25th March, all over Maharashtra. Directed by Amol Shetge, the film stars Makarand Anaspure, Sayaji Shinde, Sai Tamhankar, Ajinkya Deo and Kanchan Adhikari herself.
Written by Suresh Jayram the screenplay and dialogues of the film are penned by Amol Shetge. Cinematography by Suresh Deshmane, Lyrics by Prakash Rane and Music by Nitin Hiravklar are the other credits.
Two new TV programmes from 21st March
Through their new revised programme ‘Bhavishyavar Bolu Kahi’ Mi Marathi will be presenting Sharad Upadhye, who will take up each member of the family in dispute and suggest remedy; after going through their horoscope.
Meghana Erande will be anchoring this show, which began from 21st March 2011 and will be telecast from Monday to Saturday at 6.30 pm on Mi Marathi channel.
Another new programme comes on E-TV from 21st March 2011in the form of a serial ‘Kaalay Tasmai Namah’ which will be shown at 9pm from Monday to Saturday.
This new serial stars Vikram Gokhale in the role of Vishwambhar Pandit while Arun Nalawade plays the head of Deshmukh family- Mr. Vasantrao Deshmukh, who is the central character of this serial. The other important artistes of this serial comprises of Sulbha Deshpande, Manasi Magikar, Amit Bhanushali, Ruchita Jadhav, Sharayu Jaiwant, Naresh Bidkar and Manoj Kolhatkar.
5th Cinemax Marathi festival opens with ‘Pangira’
Opening ceremony of 5th Cinemax Marathi Film festival was held at Cinemax, Versova-Andheri, in the presence of dignitaries from Marathi film industry. The main attraction of this ceremony was the premiere of much awaited Marathi film ‘Pangira’, scripted by Sanjay Patil and directed by Rajev Patil. Almost all the members of ‘Pangira team were present and they were felicitated by Cinemax DGM- Girish Wankhede. Some other film makers like Anant Mahadevan, Mahesh Kothare, Kanchan Adhikari were also felicitated.
Mr. Mahesh Kothare appreciated the efforts taken by Cinemax to promote Marathi films, while Ms. Adhikari, welcomed such move by Cinemax to extend their festival to many more theatres in their chain this time. Mr. Girish Wankhede in his small speech made it very clear that Cinemax was always there to support Marathi films by making more and more theatres open and that too during prime time. “This year we were able to reach out to Nashik and Malegaon for the seven day festival and next year we will have a 14 day festival of Marathi films at 14 locations simultaneously, all over Maharashtra,” he said.
The artistes of ‘Pangira’ Pramod Pawar, Mita Savarkar, Smita Tambe, Chinmay Mandlekar, Shravani Pillay and others looked happy with the reaction of the viewers after the show. Mr. Rajeev Patil, the director was more than happy to notice the support of many Bollywood personalities like Mr. Vinod Pande, Mr. Dharmesh Tiwari and others appreciating his efforts to project reality through this film. Some of the films selected for screening during the one week festival at 7 Cinemax outlets in Maharashtra( like Versova, Sion, Wondermall( Thane), Kalyan, Nagpur,Nashik & Malegaon) were ‘Mee Sindhutai sapkal’, ‘Manya – the Wonder Boy’, ‘Lalbaug Parel’ ’Huppa huiya’, ‘Ideachi Kalpana’, ‘Paradh’ besides ‘Pangira’.
Manasi Salvi’s comeback with ‘Sadrakshanay’.
Producer Jayant Gilatar and debutant director Prakash Labhe’s action packed emotional drama ‘Sadrakshanay’ is all set to release in April. The film stars Mansi Salvi, who makes a comeback in a stellar role as a dashing police officer in the Crime Branch, Mumbai.
Based on the aftermath of Mumbai bomb blasts in which her young son gets injured badly. The film has a story and screen play by Prakash Labhe and stars Tushar Dalvi, Suhita Thatte, Sagar Talashilkar, Shishir Sharma, Bharat Ganeshpure, Bal Dhuri, Kamlesh Sawant and Master Rahul Phalke.
The music is by Abhijeet-Suyog and the cinematography is by Amit Singh. The executive producer is Sucheta Bandodkar and action is by Illyas Shaikh.
Mangalsutra’ scores century on Mi Marathi
Alka Kubal Athlye‘s popular serial ‘Mangalsutra’ has completed century and now in its 125th episode on Mi Marathi TV channel. To celebrate this happy occasion, the team of ‘Mangalsutra’ held a function at Mumbai’s Kohinoor hall on Thursday 16th March 2011.
Speaking on this occasion, Alka in the capacity of the producer thanked entire team and the channel for their strong support. “We thank our viewers for their overwhelming support for popularizing our serial and we assure them more in days to come. We only wish that this serial attains that 500 mark.” said the popular actress.
Endorsing her wish, senior actor Anand Abhyankar said confidently that the serial would certainly complete that figure, in view of the success it has attained while scoring the century. Young Varad Chavan( Son of Vijay Chavan) who is also part of the cast was more optimistic and expressed his wish to see the serial cross 1000 mark.
The clippings of forthcoming episodes, make it clear that serial does have the required content to target the audience from city as well as rural sector. With Alka herself playing the protagonist Mother – who is always there to protect her children and at the same time turning strict to show them the right way. Produced by Alka alongwith her husband Sameer Athlye and Shilpa Masurkar, the serial is directed by Tanaji Ghadge. Based on the story of Ramachandra Sadekar, the screenplay is written by Sachin Darekar and dialogues by Aruna Joglekar.
Besides Alka Kubal Athalye, the other main artistes of the serial are Suhas Palshikar, Anant Jog, Nagesh Bhosale, Surekha Kudchi, Kishori Ambiye, Anand Abhyankar, Asha Sathe, Sanjay Khapre, Varad Chavan, Sanjay Shejwal, Rutuja Bagwe, Amruta Sakpal and Triyug Mantri. The entire team of ‘Mangalsutra’ was present for this celebration, exchanging pleasantries only to prove their excellent team work
Taryanche Bait’ to release on 14th April
Ektaa Kapoor’s first Marathi film ‘Taryanche Bait’ is all set to release on 14th April 2011. Spokesperson of Alt Entertainment made this announcement in the Press conference held at Balaji House in Mumbai. Clippings from the film were also shown on the occasion, in the presence of director of the film Kiran Yadnopavit and lead actor Sachin Khedekar.
= The film talks about a simple self sufficient family from a village who have limited dreams. But, when the father promises something to his 10 year old son, on his getting first rank in the class; he is required to keep his promise. Based on this theme, director Kiran Yadnopavit has given the story the required cinematic touch to make it more interesting to the universal audience.
If person like Ektaa Kapoor has chosen this topic as her launching pad into Marathi films, it has certainly generated more interest. Above all, the film has a perfect lead man like Sachin Khedekar to open their innings in Marathi film industry.”It is a sensitive story with a touch of humor.” said the director, while speaking to Marathimovieworld. The star cast of the film comprises of Sachin Khedekar, Ashwini Giri, Shubhangi Joshi, Milind Pathak, Sunil Deo, Vinay Apte, Jaywant Wadkar, Ketan Pawar, Rajesh More, Ishan Tambe, Asmita Joglekar & Kishore Kadam. Story by Saurabh Bhave and Camera by Sudhir Palsane are other credits.
Music launch of ‘Paach Naar Ek Bejaar’
Framework entertainment launched the music release of their film ‘Paach Naar Ek Bejaar’ in a different style in Mumbai on Thursday 10th March 2011. In the absence of Sanjay Narvekar the lead man in this film, director Vijay Saatghare took control of the stage inviting the five girls- (Aditi Sarangdhar, Hemangi Kavi, Shweta Mehendale, Leena Bhagwat, Harshali Zine) from this film on the stage. “This is a suspense filled comedy film and I have enjoyed doing this film with this lovely team. I am confident of the film’s success and
I take this opportunity to invite you all for the Golden Jubilee celebrations,” he stated. Inviting the Producer Sachin Vartak, the lyricists- Guru Thakur, Samruddhi Pawar, the music directors Chinar – Mahesh and also the music director Mady John who has composed music for another film ‘Prema Saathi’ of this banner. Actor Manoj Joshi was among the special invitees.
The music audio CD of ‘Pach Naar Ek Bejaar’ also contains the songs of ‘Prema Saathi’ another film from Frame entertainment, music of which was also released simultaneously. After the release of this CD, the makers also made an announcement that this music CD was specially manufactured to avoid piracy and challenged anyone who dared to make copy of the same, with a prize of Rs. 1 lakh. With sizzling music and suitable lyrics, the songs are expected to popularize before the release of the film on 7th April 2011.
Tu Bhetashi Navyane’ Now 160+ .
Mi Marathi’s popular serial ‘Tu Bhetashi Navyane’ has now completed 160 episodes and is now on the verge of changing the track, as per the demand of the story. The serial already has a tagline ‘Prem Fakta Ekdach hota ka?’ (Does love happen only once?) This has also given scope for inclusion of some more talented artistes like Mrunialini Jambhale, Sameer-Vijay, Swapnali Patil, Ashwini Ekbote, Poonam Gulati, Shubhangi Latkar and Sharad Ponkshe. The serial which unfolds many tragic events in the life of Shilpi, played by Rujuta Deshmukh, already has some big names like Ashutosh Kulkarni, Ashok Shinde, Madhu Kambikar, Pradeep Velankar, Yatin Karyekar, Shekhar Phadke and Vikram Gokhale.
While speaking to the press on the occasion of celebrating the success of this serial, Producer-director Jeetu Arora (who has done more than 50 Hindi serials) expressed his happiness for the finest cooperation received from his team and the audience. “I decided to do this Marathi serial, as some of my friends are Maharashtrians and I find Marathi artistes more talented than Hindi artistes,” he added. He also thanked Mi Marathi channel, for giving him an opportunity to present his own script through ‘Tu Bhetashi Navyane’. He specifically mentioned about the contribution of his co-producer Aakanksha khanna, who has experience at the international level. In a very modest way, he and Aakansha stayed away from the limelight after his speech and handed over the mike to Shubhangi Latkar to introduce the team of this serial including the Episode director Jalinder Kumbhar.
Present on the occasion besides the director were Rujuta Deshmukh, Ashutosh Kulkarni, Shekahr Phadke, Mrunalini Jambhale, Poonam Gulati and Swapnali Patil, who shared their experiences while working in this serial. All of them praised the working style of Jeetu and Aakanksha.