It is the first year of the forthcoming Citylight Marathi Film Festival, where seven vintage cult films as well as seven award winning new films will be shown for a week starting from June 12 to June 19 at Citylight, which has been equipped with the technology to show films in 4 K resolution. The festival is being organized by Kiran and Sai Thakur under the expert guidance of senior film critic and the brain behind International film festivals like MAMI and Third Eye- Mr. Sudhir Nandgaonkar. Every day there will be two film shows. One at 5.30 pm and the second at 8 pm.

At a press conference held at the venue to announce this festival, Sai Thakur felicitated senior journalists Kamleshwar Nadkarni and Sudhir Nandgaonkar, who have helped selecting the films for the festivals and the sponsors Makrand Vagasthal, General Manager of Kohinoor group of Hotels and Pankaj Kapoor, Marketing head of Reliance, besides Gajendra Ahire, director of ‘Anvatt’ and Shekhar Jyothi, producer.

The festival will be officially inaugurated on 12 June 2014 in the presence of various dignitaries from the film industry at Citylight, with the screening of filmmaker Gajendra Ahire’s latest film ‘Anvatt’, which will be the first film in India to be shown in the 4k resolution technology. The week long Marathi film festival will showcase films like ‘Asthu’, ‘Navri Mile Navryala’, ‘Tingya’, ‘Pinjra’, ‘Jogwa’, ‘Maherchi Sadi’, ‘Shaala’, ‘Umbartha’, ‘Khel Mandla’, ‘Maratha Tithuka Milvava’, ‘Pune 52′, ‘Jagachya Pathivar’ and ‘Rege’, besides a rare short film called ‘Pu La’ on the late Pu La Deshpande, directed by Devhare.

On this occasion, Sai Thakur of Citilight said that their theatre was also planning to have its own children’s film festival in December this year, as it has its own 4 k system installed. While Kiran Thakur said that his son Prasad Thakur had bought Citylight from its earlier owners with the idea of showing Marathi films in a big way and stated that he is proud that Maharashtrians have always created path breaking films at various stages like ‘Shyamchi Aai’, fifty years ago and ‘Shwaas’, which was shortlisted for the Oscars, ten years ago. He also expressed the hope that the first ever effort by Citylight to promote Marathi Cinema which has emerged as a big force to reckon, with all over the globe, will be warmly welcomed by not only Maharashtrians but also non- Maharashtrians, especially in the Dadar-Mahim area.

Sudhir Nandgaonlar applauded the efforts of Sai and Kiran Thakur, for mooting the idea of holding a Marathi film festival for the time and said that till date no theatre has hosted a film festival of Marathi films in Mumbai. He also thanked Gajendra Ahire, for having the confidence to show his film ‘Anvatt’ even before its official release on August 1 this year. Gajendra Ahire said, “With 12 Crore Maharashtrians all over the world today, Marathi cinema has grown not only quantitatively but also qualitatively and the day is not far, when the flag of Marathi Cinema will soar higher with pride.”