Maharashtra Kalanidhi raises funds worth Rs 1 crore to revive Marathi plays...
October 16, 2012 12:00:00 AM IST MTG editorial
Maharashtra Kalanidhi, the brainchild of Nitesh Rane, President, Swabhimaan Sanghatana and Anant Panshikar of Natya Sampada celebrated its first milestone success in the presence of a host of Marathi actors, artistes, playwrights and the business fraternity. In a memorable event, both these communities came together to address the challenges that the Marathi Entertainment industry faces and pledge support to each other and forge a new bond. The business fraternity joined hands with the Marathi entertainment industry with an aim of growing together constructively.
"The Marathi entertainment industry needs to be self sufficient. It is the need of the hour! From the past two months, since the time we launched Maharashtra Kalanidhi...it has been our relentless effort to try and shape this industry while making it viable to the business community. Without them seeing a merit in this category, no way can this trade benefit and take a further leap into becoming what it has the potential to be" said Anant Panshikar...one of the promoters of this initiative. "We are taking small but constructive steps towards a mammoth future and we are beginning with Marathi plays, which has a rich and veritable cultural legacy, yet is currently an untapped market", he added further.
"Just a few days back, we launched our membership drive. Our volunteers have tapped catchments. And in just a couple of weeks we have already achieved 10% of our first year target" adds Nitesh Rane, President of Swabhimaan Sanghatana and the driving force behind Maharashtra Kalanidhi. "The number is only going to grow....and you will see for yourself that this industry which took a second seat for perceptually lack of audience has a massive demand. This is an out-of-the-box way of constructively looking at being a 'do-gooder' for the industry" adds Nitesh further, while not mincing words and taking a dig at other so-called attempts of political parties.
Jyotirbhaskar Shri Jayant Salgaonkar commemorated the event and revealed the logo. Present for this event were head honchos across business communities like Aniroodh Dhoot -Director, Videocon Industries; Ajit Marathe of Nirman Group, Talwalkar (of Talwalkar's fitness chain) and Vinayak Gaytonde, Ravindra Awati of Reliance Energy. Amongst the stalwarts from the Marathi Entertainment fraternity, were Bharat Dabholkar, Vijay Patkar (President Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal), Sumit Raghavan, Chinmayee Sumit, Anand Ingle and many others.
The event addressed the challenges that the industry faces and the importance to be self-sufficient and to significantly nurture the self-esteem and creative satisfaction, while opening doors to commercial success for the artists as well as the for the makers. A website demonstrated online registration for patrons and online ticket bookings which is the very first of its kind for the Marathi Entertainment Industry.
About Maharashtra Kalanidhi
Maharashtra Kalanidhi's mission is to identify and provide support, including financial assistance to innovative works in the field of Marathi entertainment. The same would be achieved by providing subsidy support through advance sales accomplished by a captive audience base. Maharashtra Kalanidhi is promoted by Nitesh Rane, founder & President of Swabhimaan Sanghatana, an organization that works at the grass-root level empathizing with the needs of the common Mumbaikars and Anant Panshikar, owner of Natya Sampada, a pioneering Marathi theatre group, that has produced successful plays in Marathi over the years.
