Prime time screening will help Marathi cinema a lot: Riteish Deshmukh

I think it's a good move. People may underestimate the difference an evening prime time show slot can make. Yes, for a Hindi film, an evening prime time show may not make a big difference but it certainly would help a Marathi film a lot. It would definitely contribute to the overall revenues--one, because with mostly morning shows, where they currently get slotted, the audience who can go for those shows are mostly students. But with an evening slot, it gives the viewer a choice, to possibly come with the family thereby contributing in larger numbers.

I would compare it to a weak student or a backbencher, who is given a chance to say sit with the best student in the class, more of an equal footing.
I do however feel all the stakeholders must be consulted before arriving at a conclusion but I do strongly feel that not just Marathi, small regional cinema which I read about also, like Sindhi etc will also die if it is not protected.

Marathi cinema is currently at a stage where Hindi cinema was in the 70s and 80s in terms of revenue collections, where week two is as good as one and week three may be even better than one and two. Films grow by word of mouth and people need to figure out which shows to go to, so having a slot like a prime time would be a huge help. While content has been great every industry has good and bad films, but Marathi film audiences give more of a chance to content than Hindi. Take a film like Fandry, (2013) which is the story of a romance amidst caste-based discrimination. The film set in Akolner, a village near Ahmednagar is about a teenager from a Dalit (lower caste) family, who lives at the village fringe, and falls in love with an upper caste girl. This film would never have worked if made in Hindi.

Also, the dynamics of publicity, funds, and estimates are so different in the Marathi film industry that it tilts the industry, Hindi films have a huge budget whereas Marathi is restricted, because they know their collections cannot rise above a certain number. Now, if we know there are more shows, people may not mind spending Rs 4-5 crore as there is a higher chance of recovery. Also, Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city where people may not speak Marathi fluently but do understand it and may want to go and see a Marathi film, prime time gives them a better option to do so.

India is a country of many languages and we need to cultivate their cinema. Marathi cinemas has had stalwarts like V Shantaram, Dadasaheb Phalke among others as well.

The whole programming in my opinion should be structured differently. When a big blockbuster say Hindi film is released it used to go out with 3,000 prints, now as the screens increase, it goes out with 5,000 screens, completely swamping any small film that may even think of a release. It does not even begin to get a chance, even if it is Hindi. So forget regional or Marathi. I think that there should be a system in place where even big blockbusters do not get more than 80% of the screens and 20% is left to smaller films, or regional so that both viewers get a choice and the films get a chance to be showcased fairly. The rest is always upto the audience.

(As told to Nandini Raghavendra)