Adinath Kothare Says Riteish Deshmukh Has Shifted The Access To Business In Marathi Cinema With Raja Shivaji

National Award-winning actor-filmmaker Adinath Kothare has been working across Hindi and Marathi languages. He was last seen in the Hindi web series System, and produced and starred in the Marathi web series Detective Dhananjay: Rahasyajal. Next up, he will be seen in Nitesh Tiwari’s magnus opus, Ramayana: Part 1 this year.

Adinath Kothare acknowledges the increase in audience for Marathi content, and credits a huge part of that success to actor-filmmaker Riteish Deshmukh and his film Raja Shivaji, which earned over ₹100 crore in India and became the highest-grossing Marathi film of all time.

“It’s a great feeling and I am proud of Riteish Deshmukh. It’s such a big project and it was a daring move to invest that kind of money in the Marathi industry. It’s a huge leap for us and the film’s success showed trade what we are capable of doing if the right people are backing and creating content. Riteish has shifted the access to business in the Marathi industry,” he says.

Adinath says that the content-driven work coming out of the region has also contributed to this growth: “Films like Tighee and Kranti Jyoti Vidyalaya have also crossed over and brought audiences to Marathi films.”

The actor adds it’s a good time for regional actors to expand their audience. “Language is no more a barrier today thanks to the digital wave that has come in the country. The audience is maturing and evolving, and the lockdown made that shift possible. The smart television audience had no option but to sample different languages content and it altered their palette,” he says.

Acknowledging the opportunities this wave has presented to regional artistes like him, Adinath adds, “I’m very grateful and I feel blessed that such wonderful opportunities are coming my way and I am getting to perform different characters and that too on a pan-India level across languages. It’s a great time for regional content. Regional cinemas are growing bigger and performing better then certain pan-India cinemas and it’s a great sign.”

Adinath feels that his show Detective Dhananjay also benefitted from this shift. “It’s all about all things to align together. You need to keep taking efforts and trying hard and trying your best every time. We’d been working on Detective Dhananjay for the past one-and-a-half year and it finally came out at during the best time for Marathi content. But timing is a coincidence and something you can't control. All you can control is focusing on creating good content, and that’s all I do,” he ends.