Some of the Marathi films which stood out this year were "Court", "Killa", "Katyar Kaljat Ghusali", "Highway", "Mumbai Pune Mumbai 2" and "Double Seat".
The most successful and critically acclaimed of the lot was the National award winning "Court". The courtroom-drama was director Chaitanya Tamhane's debut effort in examining the Indian legal system through the trail of an ageing folk singer.
Bagging the maximum number of national and international awards by an Indian film - so far 18 - "Court" was also India's selection to the 88th Academy Awards in the best foreign language film category.
"Killa" bagged the National Award for best feature film in Marathi. Interestingly, Avinash was also the cinematographer of "Masaan", another film which did wonders at international film festivals, including winning two awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
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While both "Court" and "Killa" were slightly on the artistic side, another debutante director, Subodh Bhave, gave perhaps one of the biggest blockbusters of Marathi cinema, "Katyar Kaljat Ghusali".
"Marathi cinema is destined to go to the next level and achieve greater heights. It's about time for Marathi films to make a global mark. Not that it wasn't doing good earlier but right now it is in an excellent phase."
The film set the cash registers ringing, despite facing competition from a big budget Bollywood film "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" starring Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor.
Sequel to the 2010 super-hit film, "Mumbai Pune Mumbai 2", made a place for itself despite a Bollywood blockbuster and popular Marathi drama.
If "Katyar Kaljat Ghusali" marked Shankar's foray into acting, another film "Highway" saw the Marathi acting debut of Bollywood actress Huma Qureshi and Tisca Chopra and musical debut of composer Amit Trivedi.
"Highway" was one of the most talked about films this year owing to its original, out-of-the-box idea of an entire movie being set on the Pune-Mumbai expressway where the lives of the ensemble cast intersects when the traffic comes to a grinding halt.
Apart from these, Ravi Jadhav struck gold again with the highly popular sequel of his super hit "Timepass". The 2015 romantic-comedy-drama "Timepass 2" not only earned rave reviews but also proved to be a success at the box office.
Ankush Choudhary and Mukta Barve starrer "Double Seat" too met with both, box office and critical acclaim, with its story of a married couple trying to find their place in Mumbai. Even the Marathi superhero film "Baji" found its audience.