Sairat, released in April this year, is turning out to be the biggest Marathi grosser ever. Made on a budget of Rs 4 crore, the film has already crossed Rs 80 crore at the box office, says Nikhil Sane, head of Marathi films for Zee Studios, the producer. After trade share and entertainment taxes, only a third of this money will go to the studio. Even then Sairat would have made over six times its cost.
Sairat is another example of the creative renaissance that Marathi cinema has been going through in the last few years. Elizabeth Ekadashi (2014), Katyar Kaljat Ghusali (2015), Fandry (2013) are among the others. They are good stories that have been lauded and awarded at film festivals across the world and in India. And the good films usually manage to make money, though the overall strike rate remains low, just like that of Hindi films. About 10 to 15 per cent of the 120 Marathi films made in 2015 were profitable and brought in a bulk of the industry's combined gross of Rs 250 crore, say insiders.
For a cinema that was down in the dumps, this is a huge turnaround. Through the eighties and nineties, Marathi films were known for cheap comedies of the Dada Kondke variety. What could the cinemas that are trying to rise, like Punjabi and Bangla, learn from Marathi?
Much of the audience for Sairat, which I watched in a theatre in Mumbai, were non-Marathi people, who came because there were English subtitles. This helped the film cross over to a bigger audience, improving its ability to make money a la Spider-Man in Bhojpuri or Hindi.
Note that for an average of about 1,000 films a year, the Indian industry makes revenues of just about Rs 13,800 crore. Hollywood makes 10 times as much just in local revenues from half as many films because it monetises its films much better. To better monetise the films released, it is imperative that Indian films find a larger audience. Why not start with the market within all of India instead of focusing just on Maharashtra, Gujarat or Punjab? Some films are doing it. Bahubali, one of the biggest hits of 2015, is a Telugu-Tamil bilingual, dubbed in Hindi, Malayalam and French. The promotions for the to-be-released Udta Punjab clearly target an audience from across north India for this Hindi-Punjabi bilingual.
Zee, now the single-largest studio for Marathi films, started subtitling with the National Award-winning film, Fandry. "The buzz for Fandry (a story about love and caste discrimination) was across social and national media; it was not limited to Marathi-speaking people. We thought this film had a multi-cultural audience and subtitled it," Sane says. While the impact on ticket sales or revenues is not quantifiable, it definitely has one, adds Sane.
The other reason why the new Marathi cinema has continued to do well for over four years is obvious but difficult to grasp unless you watch the films. It is different and digs deep into Marathi culture, theatre and literature to come up with great stories that explore society and relationships.
Katyar Kaljat Ghusali is based on a 1967 play about the rivalry between two classical singers. Natsamrat (2016), the biggest Marathi hit before Sairat is based on an iconic 1970 play about a fading theatre actor. "There is no formula (to what works)," says Sane. "Sairat is not just a love story, it has so many political and social nuances." The closest parallel, arguably, is Malayalam cinema, which is popular because it explores unexpected genres and subjects, reckons Sane.
He points out that almost all the critically acclaimed films have been made by young, unknown directors.
Multiplexes, better ticket pricing and more screens make it a happy coincidence of good storytelling finding its market.
Twitter: @vanitakohlik