(4 September 2008 9:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Pursuing its ambitious $1 billion investment plan towards filmed entertainment business, Reliance ADAG today annouced its entry into Marathi movies with Samaantar.

Big Pictures, the film production arm of Reliance ADAG, plans to release Samaantar in early 2009 and take it to international markets.

Says Big Pictures COO Mahesh Ramanathan, “I personally believe that Marathi films are still not marketed well enough. Though post Shwaas more emphasis is being given to distribution and marketing, this move is seen only at the domestic front. We will take Samaantar to international markets and film festivals, the first of which is the Berlin film festival, to be held in February next year.”

Samaantar, directed by Amol Palekar and wife Sandhya Gokhle, is currently under production.

Big Pictures is planning to spend Rs 15 million on promoting the film. “We have identified the international markets for Marathi cinema and will be spending not less then Rs 15 million for promoting Samaantar. There is a big audience in Jatras (Maharashtrian fair) also, where we will promote the movie,” says Ramanathan.

With Samaantar, Palekar will return to acting after a gap of 22 years. “After Khamosh in 1996, I stopped acting because it did not interest me. However, after reading through this role, I was really interested at portraying it,” avers Palekar.

In May this year, Big Pictures had announced its aggressive movie plans. The company has lined up 70 films in nine languages (Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi) for production and distribution till December 2009.