Sukhtankar’s Marathi Film ‘Astu’, Nagraj Manjule’s- ‘Fandry’ and Mahesh Limaye’s ‘Yellow’ won top honours at the 5th Godrej Expert Sahyadri Cine Awards 2014 that were presented in Mumbai on Thursday evening .

Sumitra and Sunil Sukhtankar’s ‘Astu’, that has won critical acclaim, was adjudged the Best Film. Starring Veteran actor Mohan Agashe along with Iravati Harshe, Milind Soman and an Elephant in a lead role, ‘Astu’, ( So Be It) portrays Indian value system powerfully.

Nagraj Manjule’s directorial debut ‘Fandry’ focuses on romance amidst caste based discrimination. Manjule won the Best Director Award. Earlier, he had won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director at the 61st National Film Awards instituted by the Government of India.

2014 Marathi Film ‘Yellow’, directed by Mahesh Limaye and produced by Riteish Deshmukh got the special Jury Award. The film that has Mrunal Kulkarni of ‘Sonpari’ fame, in the lead role explores a mother-daughter relationship and developmental disability of a child suffering from Down’s Syndrome.

Ashok Lokhande won the Best Actor Male award for “Yashwantrao Chavan- Ek Bakhar’, while Smita Tambe won the Best Actor Female award for “72 Mile -Ek Pravas”

Oscar Awardee Resul Pookutty won the Best Sound Award for the film ‘Rainy Day’.

The Jury for the Awards comprised Director- Ramesh Salgaonkar, Director-Santosh Randive, Music Director- Mukund Marathe, Editor-Prakash Jadhav, Film Critique Journalists-Dilip Thakur, Senior Journalists-Shri Soumitra Pote and Raj Chindarkar.

Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, who could not be present at the award ceremony due to ongoing Parliament Session, addressed the audience through video link up. He expressed happiness over the strides made by Marathi films and complimented the top performers. “There was time when Marathi artistes had to find work in the Hindi film industry but the trend has changed today. Marathi films like ‘Astu’ and ‘Fandry’ have not only won critical acclaim, but also made wave internationally” the Minister added.

CEO, Prasar Bharati, Jawahar Sircar was the Chief Guest at the 5th edition of the Cine Awards ceremony, organized by DD Sahyadri TV channel of Doordarshan Kendra, Mumbai. Kiran Santaram, Parikshit Sahani, Nitish Bharadwaj, Ranjeet, Sam Balsara, Shaina NC, Kamlakar Sontakke were among those present . The programme was conceived and presented by Mukesh Sharma, ADG and head of DD Sahyadri.

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After the grand success of ‘Balak Palak’, acclaimed actor Riteish Deshmukh and Uttung Hitendra Thakur once again back together, VIVA IN-EN and Mumbai Film Company to produce YELLOW Marathi cinema. YELLOW will be a blend of emotions and unique story for the audience.

Uttarayan, Natrang, Balgandharva, Balak Palak, Fashion, Corporate, Heroine, Traffic Signal, Dabangg 1 & 2 to mention few movie’s noted Cinematography Mahesh Limaye will now come as a director of YELLOW.

The movie YELLOW is based on a true story and during the event the poster of the movie was launched by the lead of the movie Gauri Gadgil along with her parents. On this occasion, the event witnessed the presence of producer Riteish Deshmukh, Uttung Hitendra Thakur, Director and Cinematography Mahesh Limaye, entire team of technicians and artists.

The audience present for the event was zapped with the wonderful song ‘Special’ sung by Apeksha Dandekar.  Each artist Upendra Limaye, Mrinal Kulkarni, Hrushikesh Joshi, Manoj Joshi, Aishwarya Narkar, Usha Nadkarni, Shikhar Hitendra Thakur, Pravin Darade has given their best performance ever making YELLOW a quality cinema. The highlight of the movie was the outstanding performance of Gauri Gadgil and Sanjana Rai which will certainly touch to each heart.

The core idea of YELLOW was conceptualised by Hitendra Thakur and MLA Kshitij Thakur. “Such issues are very sensitive and an uphill task which needs extra care to handle, but fun is always connected to real challenges. The entire idea is perfectly portrait in the movie YELLOW”. Adding further director Mahesh Limaye said, “This movie was a huge challenge and thanks to Riteish Deshmukh and Uttung Hitendra Thakur for having faith in me. Hope I have given justice to YELLOW.”

“The movie received huge pick-up and response from people since the promo was reveled in social media. The promo was widely appreciated including eminent bollywood personalities. I’m happy to be associated with YELLOW, a quality Marathi cinema giving a different vision to your life. I would like to give all the credits to Hitendra Thakur and MLA Kshitij Thakur for giving us such a story. Each one has given their best for this movie. Personally I’m a fan of Gauri for her outstanding performance. I’m confident that each one will agree to me when they will see her on-screen. Till now I’ve seen this movie around four times but I’m equally excited to watch this movie on large screen,” said Riteish Deshmukh.

“YELLOW has a bollywood touch because of the association of two eminent personalities of Bollywood Riteish Deshmukh and Mahesh Limaye. I’m confident that their combination and vision will certainly take this movie to a next level. Riteish Deshmukh has good knowledge of movie promotion and marketing. From casting to script, everything was a team effort of Mahesh, Amber and Ganesh giving justice to each character. The entire team of Balak-Palak was is YELLOW with same energy. Few scenes in the movie we specially shot in Bangkok. For this movie we didn’t compromised on any aspect,” expressed Mr Uttung Hitendra Thakur during the event.

The writer of Balak-Palak Ganesh Pandit and Amber Hadap has written the story of YELLOW, screenplay by Ambar Hadap, Ganesh Pandit & Mahesh Limaye, Music & Background score by Kaushal Inamdar, songs written by Guru Thakur and sung by Apeksha Dandekar in her melodious voice.

Based on a true incidence, this positive story YELLOW will be release on April 4 across Maharashtra.

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Marathi film ‘Rege’ based on a recent notorious encounter, to be screened at 12th Pune Internaional Film Festival (PIFF) and 2nd Indian International film festival of South Africa (IIFFSA).

‘Rege’, Written and directed by Abhijit Panse, was lauded by critics and audiences in MAMI Festival, is believed to be based on a notorious fake encounter which has seen many encounter specialists from Mumbai police force going behind bars. Some of them have even been convicted by a Mumbai court in a recent ruling.

After dabbling many years in politics, Initially as the president of ‘Bhartiy Vidyarthi Sena’ and then as the president of ‘Bhartiya Chitrapat Sena’, Abhijit Panse has turned director with his ambitious project ‘Rege’. Panse says, “The film has all real life experiences. I have even used real names like Pradeep Sharma, Sachin Waze or D.K. to give the film much required authenticity.”

He further adds, “The ‘police-underworld nexus’ or ‘encounter’ genre has been done to death, especially in bollywood with films like ‘Satya’and ‘Company’. Though these films are considered realistic, they are not. They glorify and stylize characters and events which take away the realistic quotient considerably. Having been familiar with the working of police department as well as underworld, I can confidently claim that you have never witnessed as realistic film as ‘Rege’ on Indian screens as far as this genre is concerned.”

‘Rege’ stars Mahesh Manjrekar, Pushkar Shrotri, Santosh Juvekar, Aaroh Velankar and many others with a sound theatre background in pivotal roles. Cinematography is by Mahesh Limaye, while background score has been composed by ‘Saawariya’ fame Monty Sharma.

‘Rege’ will now not only be screened at PIFF and IIFFSA, but is competing in both the festivals. (PIFF- in the Marathi Films’Competition and IIFFSA – Overall Indian Competition). At PIFF, ‘Rege’ will lock horns with films like Fandry, Tapaal, Astu, Naarbachi Wadi. PIFF will take place in Pune from 9-16 January, 2014.

After PIFF ‘Rege’ flies to South Africa to compete in the prestigious IIFFSA; a multi-city event, scheduled to be held in Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg Jan 16-23, 2014.

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