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NEW DELHI: Continuing the trend of regional films rushing to lock dates as cinemas reopen, Marathi movie Pirem will release on 3 December, the makers have said. It stars Vishvajeet and Divya Subhash and has been directed by Pradeep Rangrao Laykar.
Green shoots for the film exhibition business after the covid waves came from Punjabi and Bengali cinema, but these industries could slow down once star-studded Bollywood films hit theatres in the coming months.
Big-ticket Bollywood and southern films like Sooryavanshi, ’83, Pushpa: The Rise - Part One and RRR, slated for release November onwards, are likely to eat into the business of smaller regional language films.
Trade experts said multiplexes should nurture these smaller films as it’s easier for them to go directly to digital platforms. Plus they are required to fill in theatres in the absence of bigger films that are staggered over the year.
Starting with Punjabi romantic comedy Honsla Rakh that came out late last month regional films like Avijatrik (Bengali), Doctor Bakshi (Bengali) and Darling (Marathi) have been slated for the coming months.
Overall, about 110 Marathi language films are unreleased because of the covid-19 pandemic, according to industry experts, resulting in investments of around Rs. 200 crore remaining stuck. While Maharashtra government guidelines mandate that a certain number of screens are allotted to Marathi films each week, not every producer has contacts in the administration or producer unions.
Even though multiplexes are often accused of ignoring smaller regional language films, Rahul Puri, MD, Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas, told Mint in an earlier interview that companies like theirs will have to strategize (shows and timings) based on locations and target audience.
“We will ensure to schedule the wide array of movies releasing during and post Diwali in such a manner that each and every title creates excitement," Puri had said.
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