The award ceremony of 10th Arogya Chitrapat Mahotsav organised by PM Shah Foundation, took place recently. National Award winning director Sunil Sukthankar was the chief guest and he distributed the prizes to the winners. Ad. Chetan Gandhi was also present on this occasion. Speaking on this occasion, the chief guest said, “During the past days, one had to spend Rs. 13,000/- to buy a reel to make a film of 4 minutes duration. Now, due to digitalisation, film making has become much easier, which is a good news. This has also helped people living at District places to make films.”

In the documentary section, the First prize was won by ‘Rebirth’ directed by Dinesh Vasantrao Aakhade, while in the short film section ‘Aarsa’ written by Ashish Ningurkar and directed by Ganesh Modak, won the first prize. This short film stars talented Shweta Pagar along with Sanket Kashyap, Chaitra Bhujbal, Geetanjali Kambli,Dr. Smita Kasar and Vaishnavi Velapure. Cinematography is by Yogesh Andhare.

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We have seen the progress of Marathi films, inviting the attention of the audience from different parts of the world. But, there are many such Marathi films, which have won prestigious awards, including national awards; which could not reach the local audience in Maharashtra. The reason being simple. The producers of these films could not find distributors to release their films in theatres. One such film is ‘Astu’.

‘Astu’ could be released last year only in one cinema hall in Pune, for this reason. This film is directed by reputed directors like Sumitra Bhawe and Sunil Sukathankar and is produced by Sheela Rao ( Gaurika films) and Dr. Mohan Agashe. Besides producing this film, Dr.Mohan Agashe has also played a lead  role in this film, along with other artistes like Amruta Subhash , Devika Daftardar, Milind Soman , Irawati Harshe & Nachiket Purnapatre. The film has presented  the story of a retired officer,  who is a patient of alzheimers.

Now, good news for those who are interested in watching this film in theatres, is that the film will be released, by using the co-funding method. This concept has been successful for other regional films, especially in the south. Rajat Kapoor’s Hindi film ‘Bheja Fry’ was released with this method. According to Producer Sheela Rao , Mr Satish Kataria form ‘Catapult’ has taken this initiative.  Through this  process funds will be collected from common people , for producing or releasing the film and is also called ‘crowd funding’. But, for releasing the film, the most appropriate word would be ‘Co-funding’. And, ‘Astu’ will be the first Marathi film, to be released in this manner.

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