Marathi short films being made into features

While reel adaptations of books, novels, short stories and plays are common, Marathi directors are now converting short films or documentaries into full length features. We bring you a few examples of this concept that is fast gaining foothold in the industry.

Film: Siddhant (releasing in September/October)

An adaptation of the 2010 short film Kshan- Sparsh Mayecha, this upcoming movie was made over the last four years, informed producer Nilesh Navlakha. “As the script is both powerful and indigenous, making it into a movie was always on our mind. The film will be totally different in terms of its presentation. The screenplay has been developed keeping in mind the time span of a movie. While Kshan- Sparsh Mayecha showcased the struggle between a father and a son, Siddhant is a story about a grandfather and his grandson,” he said, adding, “Earlier when we made a short film, we treated it more like an experiment and lack of marketing knowhow affected its reach. I am sure the feature film will garner a wide audience.”

Film: Aaji (tentative title, releasing in October)

Directed by Durgesh Sukthankar and written by actor Chinmay Mandlekar, this upcoming movie is an adaptation of the 2010 short film Aaji. Durgesh says that the positive feedback for his short film motivated him to convert it into a movie. “The film was much liked and appreciated by actor Sachin Pilgaonkar and photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, who had come for its screening,” informed Sukthankar. Talking about his upcoming film, he added, “We have retained the basic storyline and the same set of actors — Aniket Vishwasrao and Rekha Kamat who are playing the roles of the grandson and the grandmother respectively, and the film revolves around them. Also the short film’s title track will be retained. To expand the script we elaborated the father-son track and have also added many new tracks like a mama-bhanja and a student-teacher one.”

Film: Aiyya (Released)

Director Sachin Kundalkar’s 2012 Rani Mukherjee starrer Aiyyaa, was also based on one of the short stories featured in the 2008 Marathi movie Gandha. Directed by Sachin, the film had actors Amruta Subhash and Girish Kulkarni in the lead roles. Milind Soman and Sonali Kulkarni also featured in the 'Gandha'. South star Prithviraj featured opposite Rani Mukerji in 'Aiyya'.

Film: Aadesh - Power of Law (releasing in November)

Short film director and FTII alumnus, Suvahhdan Angre’s upcoming debut Marathi feature film Aadesh – Power of Law, a biopic on lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, who secured the death penalty for terrorist Ajmal Kasab, was originally a 2012 documentary titled Pudhchi Tarikh. Financial support from his co-producer made Suvahhdan achieve his dream of converting the film into a feature. “Some producers who had showed interest initially, backed out at the last minute, thus delaying the film. The expanse of Nikam’s work is so large that it cannot be captured in a 15 minute documentary. Unlike the short film which had one minute bytes from various characters, for the big canvas we have re-worked all the characters and given them a history. We have also highlighted the role of Ajmal’s defence attorney unlike the documentary which glorifies only Nikam as the public prosecutor,” said Suvahhdan.