Usually ‘Drags’ are not appreciated by sensible audiences. Almost everybody who played drag couldn’t resist temptation of below the belt humor but one actor who do not fall into this category is Vijay Chavan. When he donned a sari to play a female character of Mavshi (maternal aunt) in a Marathi play ‘Moruchi Mavshi’ he was appreciated and adored by the audiences and his appearance as Mavshi for around 3000 times proves it. After doing competitive theatre when he got an opportunity on professional theatre, first with ‘Tur Tur’ and then ‘Moruchi Mavshi’, there has been no looking back. But after so many years and 250 films he is still grounded. He did about 50 plays and each one of them crossed 100 shows and that’s no small feat. He has always stood out among many big names leaving his own stamp in movies or plays.

Vijay Chavan, fondly referred to as Vijumama by the industry people, was the first recipient of honour ‘Not Out’, an initiative to honor senior actors from Marathi entertainment industry while they still are active in the field, by Sailee Dream Ventures and Dream Shop Entertainment. The organizers Mangesh and Sudha Sawant and Bhushan Kadu whose brainchild is this idea, were unanimous on Vijumama’s name and when Vijay Chavan took stage in the garb of his trademark Mavshi costume, he received a standing ovation.

Incidentally Vijay Chavan has films like, ‘Zapatlela’, ‘Pachadlela’, ‘Zapatlela 2′, ‘Akleche Kande’, ‘Nana Mama’, ‘Misal Pav’, ‘Sangto Aika’, ‘Sasu cha Swayamvar’ to name a few. His son Varad started off the show with his crisp dancing in Ganesh Vandana and Natarang Naman. Pushkar Shrotri was his usual best in compering and some of his one-liners were intelligently tickling. Hemangi Kavi, Atul Todankar, Abhijit Chavan, Santosh Pawar, Kamalakar Satpute were part of the comedy skits while Pradeep Patwardhan and Kishore Ambiye staged a scene from Moruchi Mavshi with Vijumama himself. Deepali Sayyad, Pooja Sawant, Sanskruti Balgude enthralled the audience with their gyrating moves.
Plenty celebrities from the marathi film industry were present with best wishes for Vijay Chavan.

Vijay Chavan, a man of few words, thanked everybody for the good words and honor.