Amitabh to produce more Marathi films

The premiere of AB Corp's Marathi film Vihir was held in Mumbai on March 18 amid much fanfare. Amitabh Bachchan was present at the event. Shweta Parande of IBNMovies spoke to the superstar on the occasion.

Was producing Marathi cinema always on AB Corp's agenda?

We have always been open to producing regional cinema. Not many people know this, but since AB Corp's inception in 1995, we have produced Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi cinema. Jaya (Bachchan) and I have even starred in a Marathi film (Akka) made by my make-up man Deepak Sawant.

Amitabh to produce more Marathi films

How did you pick up Vihir?

As for Vihir, its director Umesh Kulkarni is a gold medalist from the film institute (FTII, Pune). Since Jaya is his senior there, she was very impressed with his work and instrumental in him getting a gold medal. We are very proud of the response Vihir has been getting. It has been screened at film festivals in Seoul, Berlin, London, Rotterdam….

So, do you plan to produce more Marathi films?

For the past couple of years, Marathi cinema has made huge progress in terms of its quality, content and performances. Hindi cinema has always had actors from Marathi stage and films. But Marathi films have really come up in quality now. So, we might produce some more.

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