"Will Global Marathi Audience prefer watching adult comedy movies? - Is the Marathi film audience emerging or still the same? Publicist Harshit Mhatre

In the unlock phase, the shooting of films, television shows, and web series has resumed, putting on hold for a long while. By following the rules and regulations given by the Indian & Maharashtra government, the entertainment industry is back on track Now. However, due to coronavirus lockdown, the release of all the movies got postponed. Single screens Theatres and multiplexes are still closed. All of this has impacted every single person working in the entertainment industry.

Along with the actors, the crew member who used to earn daily struggled a lot in this lockdown phase. But with the beginning of the unlock phase, slowly and steadily, the industry is streamlining. When we talk about Indian regional films, out of various languages, Marathi language Films are the highlight for their impacting storyline, screenplay, and direction. No doubt Marathi Industry has many brilliant filmmakers, and they always try hard to portray extraordinary stories. Still, in an ironic twist of fate, presently, Marathi Industry is begging for recognition from its own 'MARATHI MANASE (people)'. If we can review the box office success before the lockdown, the Marathi film industry and especially indie filmmakers are now gasping for breath. Queues in front of the booking counters of cinema houses screening Marathi films are a rarity as middle-class audiences switch from Marathi to Hindi films. And now this will get worst after the lockdown is over. 

In the last three years,2018-2020 100 + Marathi Movie released, out of which particularly 21 Marathi films could grab the audience to the cinema halls & became successful at the box office. Therefore, we can divide these films into four categories. 

Family Entertainment: MUMBAI PUNE MUMBAI 3, AAPLA MANUS, NAAL, BUCKET LIST, YE RE YE RE PAISA, GIRLFRIEND, YE RE YE RE PAISA 2, DHURALA
                                                                                                                Biopic: DR. KASHINATH GHANEKAR, THACKERAY, ANANDI GOPAL 

Historical drama: FARZAND, HIRKANI, FATTE SHIKAST                               

Action: MULSHI PATTERN, MAULI                                                                                

Adult Comedy:  SHIKARI, TAKATAK, BOYZ, BOYS 2

As per these categories, Family Entertainment is still a clear winner. Marathi audience still prefers to watch a good Family Entertaining Movie with their beloved. Famous faces can quickly grab eyeballs, and cast renowned actors in such movies can cost a lot of money. Biopics & Historical drama movies have a niche audience. With immense love for History and curiosity to know the legends, the audience loves to watch such films, which also gives them a sense of pride. Making a historical film or biopic is not a cakewalk. It requires lots of research and factual information. Characters played by well-known actors. Creating the perfect periodic ambiance for a visual treat is a challenging task. Such movies are higher on the budget than Family Entertainment. Talking about Action films, the Marathi film industry does not have action heroes. If we check, Marathi does not prefer action films, or Marathi Industry has not understood the gimmick of making larger-than-life entertaining action films. Still, there are a few examples like LaiBhari, Mauli, Dagdi Chawl, which were successful at the box office. Even these films have a big plot, and popular actors like Ritesh Deshmukh, Ankush Chaudhari, Makarand Deshpande, Radhika Apte helped to gain success at the box office. This success is because they were having such megastars in the films that require huge budgets. 

Last but not least is Adult comedy. This category does not require unique plots nor Big Actors, and most importantly, not even huge budgets. This one is the most preferred genre amongst the youth nowadays. Adult comedy is an attractive category as it's similar to Hindi movies. Adult comedy gives total entertainment to the audience and a good collection at the box office too, moreover, due to which small budget recovery is also easy. As said earlier, before lockdown, the Marathi film industry was gasping for breath after lockdown, and it could be dead. Filmmakers will be afraid to make big budgets movies with no assurance of essential returns. In such a pandemic, small budget movie count will increase where romantic & sex comedy could be a new choice for the Marathi audience. Sharing opinion on the same,"

 Since the coronavirus pandemic has affected every industry, people are going to start from scratch. When it comes to the movie business, even indie makers will try to make small-budget movies in the near future. Taking the shrinking budgets into consideration, the number of small-budget films will increase. If we look back at the movie business in the last year, small budget adult comedy films like boyz, Takatak did well at the box office, and hence I think indie makers will try to make movies in the same genre. These kinds of movies will be successful in both urban and rural markets and on OTT platforms of India & can give good ROI to the producers. But about the global market, I doubt. as Global Marathi audience who are staying away from India still concern about Indian culture & family entertainment films; so they will not prefer adult comedy as per my understanding!"