Planet M, Everest Entertainment Lead Industry To Steady Growth

The pandemic-induced lockdown introduced Hindi-speaking audience in India to cinema in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu languages. While these films have seen a drastic growth in past three years, Marathi cinema has been registering a slow and steady growth since 2016 – when Nagraj Manjule’s Sairat won critical as well as commercial success that crossed the state borders and reached a national level in India. It was the first Marathi film to cross the $12million at the ticket windows.

Seven years later, Marathi entertainment industry has marched ahead, and boasts of several digital platforms, apart from seeing several Hindi film stars promoting the films. Two leading players in the industry – Head & founder of Planet Marathi Group Akshay Badarpurkar and Founder and CEO of Everest Entertainment Sanjay Chabbria – talk about the growth and struggles of producing, marketing and showcasing Marathi content in today’s era.

As is the case with most successful regional language films, Marathi cinema also boasts of region-specific folk stories, literature, art and culture; and mostly celebrates historic personalities hailing from the region.

Talking about the focus on folklore in Marathi cinema, Chabbria says, “Not all our films are culturally linked, but quite a few are. (It happens, perhaps, because) The Marathi audience is very rooted and connected to their culture. We have a literate audience, so it is easier to bring those stories to theatres.”

Badarpurkar has dedicated most of his professional life to promoting Marathi content. He has often shared his ambitions of taking Marathi cinema to the Academy Awards. Sharing the difficulties he faced initially, Badarpurkar says, “Marathi industry gone through a tough time and Bollywood was number one in the state of Maharashtra as well as city of Mumbai. I chose Marathi over Bollywood as I did not have the money to produce Hindi films.”

He adds that a meeting with political leader Balasaheb Thackeray that eventually led him to become a producer for Marathi films. This was in 2009, when he was also asked to head the cinema wing of Thackeray’s party Shiv Sena. “I spoke (to Thackeray) about the decline of Marathi industry. It was political party, but I did not do anything political (at the cinema wing). I worked hard to uplift Marathi cinema.”

The Planet M founder says, “The biggest problem ailing Marathi film industry was the distribution – not giving prime time shows to Marathi films. How then can you expect people to come and watch late evening or night shows?” His 2019 film Goshta Eka Paithanichi bagged the National Award for the Best Marathi Film. Earlier, he also produced Amitabh Bachchan’s debut Marathi film –AB Ani CD.

Chabbria also weighs in the importance of balancing star value and content in films. Star and movie content are equal contributors to a film. In the earlier days a star could guarantee a good weekend, but that is no more the case. The audiences are very selective. Now, good content doesn’t get the visibility due to the lack of a star. Those can even be watched on digital platforms. Similarly, movies starring a star, but packaged with substandard content will open big on a Friday only to sink and collapse by as early as a Saturday.”

Both Planet M and Everest Entertainment thrive on the growing market for digital content and the deeper penetration of internet across language barriers. The industry has had some successful box office stories in the past few years. Everest Marathi’s Pawankhind scored $7.3 million while Planet Marathi’s Chandramukhi managed $3 million in the Indian markets. Both the films came out last year and were made at estimated budgets below $1 million.

This year, ZEE Studios’ Vaalvi has collected maximum at the box office. Everest Marathi’s Maharashtra Shaheer received positive reviews but did not score much at the ticket windows.

The way forward for the industry is to continue to the focus on regional and folk content, paired with bigger marketing and promotional tools for a wider visibility beyond the Marathi-speaking audience.

(The conversations have been edited and condensed for clarity)