Will OTT released Marathi films, get grants?

Marathi films industry has always been suffering from financial crunch. Maharashtra Govt. has always encouraged creative people in Marathi cinema and financial encouragement is also offered. The ongoing corona virus pandemic has compelled all the theatres to be closed. Many film’s, including Marathi films, release schedule has gone haywire.

Hindi film producers opted a different route of OTT platforms. But Marathi films were offered peanuts for OTT release, so they did not want to release films with financial losses. Akshay Bardapurkar came as a saviour for Marathi film producers. He launched ‘Planet Marathi OTT’ to help Marathi film producers, where he’ll release only Marathi films.

As State Govt. provides subsidy to Marathi film producers but with their films releasing on OTT they would lose subsidy, facing financial losses. Akshay Badrapurkar has taken an initiative to stem those losses and has written to Mah Chief Minister, Uddhavji Balasaheb Thackeray and Cultural Minister Amitji Deshmukh, requesting them to allow Marathi film producers to be eligible for grants despite films releasing on OTT platforms.

Against this backdrop, considering the situation of corona pandemic, as a special case, films screened on OTT platforms should also be considered for the grant scheme, requests Bardapurkar in the communications.