MUMBAI: With "Sairat" garnering not only favourable reviews but also unprecedented box office collections, Marathi cinema has yet again found a fine balance between winning appreciation as well as registering money.
Filmmaker Nagraj Manjule's romantic-drama has collected a whopping Rs 65 crore in three weeks of its release.
"Sairat" has not only shattered previous box office records of any Marathi movie, but also broken many stereotypes.
The most interesting aspect about "Sairat" is that it achieved the feat without an A-list star, a franchise, or a holiday release date. Manjule tells a heartbreaking real love story set against the backdrop of caste differences.
The running time of the the film, which stars newcomers Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar, is nearly three hours, with the first half being of almost two hours.
"Sairat" deals with an issue, which is grim, and refuses to surrender to the conventional tropes of filmmaking as it rolls out its unconventional, shocking climax.
The super success of "Sairat", hence, signifies that the audience has clearly began preferring movies, which can turn the stereotypes around rather than watch a film that refuses to respect their sensibilities.
"Sairat" is the second blockbuster for Marathi film industry this year after Nana Patekar's smashing hit, "Natsamrat".
Directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, "Natsamrat" chronicled the story of a retired actor and his wife who fall on hard times after their children's ingratitude leaves them without anything.
The film, which released on January 1 this year, went on to win immense critical acclaim and clocked solid collections at the box office, estimate Rs 48 crore.
With "Natsamrat" and "Sairat", the Marathi film industry now has as many as six super hit movies within a span of a year.
Prior to the Nana Patekar-starrer, the industry saw "Katyar Kaljat Ghusali" which released during Diwali last year.
The film, starring Sachin Pilgaonkar, and Shankar Mahadevan, took the box office by storm despite facing stiff competition from Salman Khan's "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo" and another Marathi film "Mumbai Pune Mumbai 2".