Marathi film awards to mark regional cinema's 75 years

Panaji, Nov 25 (UNI) To mark the 75th anniversary of Marathi cinema in 2007, Kiran Shantaram, son of legendary late movie mogul V Shantaram, today announced his decision to institute 'Chitrapati V Shantaram Puraskar' beginning this year.

Talking to reporters here today, Mr Shantaram said an advisory panel has been established to fine tune this idea. The awards will constitute the Best Director and Best Producer category and Lifetime Achievement with cash prize and mementos for other areas of film production.

He said the banner Shantaram Entertainment itself was also getting into film production on this occasion, both in Hindi and Marathi. Its first Marathi movie will be directed by Kedar Shinde, one of the most talented young directors on stage and screen.

Mr Shantaram said his production house will make every effort to produce films of calibre that late V Shantaram created and remained in the forefront of every sphere of the film production business. It will start a technologically advanced state-of-the-art studio at Rajkamal Kalamandir in Mumbai, he added.

The Marathi film awards instituted in memory of V Shantaram will be in 21 categories like Film, Director, Story, Screenplay, Cinematographer, Editor, Art Director, Dialogues, Make Up, Music Director, Lyrics, Choreographer, playback singer (male), playback singer (female), comedy role, debut, supporting actor, supporting actress, actor and actress, and best film (critics award).

There will be three nominations in each category. Best Film will comprise a memento and cash prize of Rs one lakh, Best Director Award comprises a memento and cash prize of Rs 50,000 and lifetime achievement award also comprises a memento and cash prize of Rs 50,000.

Other awards will have only mementos, he added.

Mr Shantaram said the name of his late father made every movie buff recall a golden era in the Indian film industry. The legendary filmmaker dominated seven decades of the industry producing 92 films under the banner of Prabhat and Rajkamal and acted in 25 films besides directing 55 films.

He said 'Shantarambapu' as his father was fondly called, was still revered by Maharashtrians for his immense contribution to the Marathi film industry. He not only created a genre of writers, directors, artistes and technicians, but came to the rescue of the industry and resurrected it whenever it passed through a bad phase.

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