Vinsan World, that has been organising the Goa
Marathi Film Festival for last eight years, is set to
return with its ninth edition this year, which kicks off
on June 3. With a total of 16 films to be screened this
year, the festival will delight Marathi cinema lovers
in Goa, by treating them with the best of Marathi
movies, premières and interactions with celebrities,
as well as very knowledgeable workshops on lyrics
incorporated in soundtracks.
Following the annual pattern, the festival will
have the screenings of selected Marathi movies
that were very successful at the box office, as well
as a few movies that have not yet been released,
but have gained critical acclaim at different film
festivals. The festival will also hold premières of two
movies that have taken Marathi film production to
an international level: ‘One Way Ticket’ and ‘Dot
Com Mom’. There will be a special screening of
the National Award-winning Konkani film, ‘Enemy’.
The screenings will take place at Kala Academy,
Maquinez Palace and INOX. “We receive a lot eligible
entries, out of which films have been selected on
the basis of quality and originality. Our mandate
is to present the most outstanding films from the
world of Marathi cinema,” says Sanjay Shetye, the
Director of Goa Marathi Film Festival. “One of the
highlights of this year’s film festival, is that it will be
inaugurated in the presence of Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
The inauguration will be followed by the screening
of Leela Bhansali’s romance mystery thriller, ‘Laal
Ishq’. We are also excited to screen National Awardwinning
films, such as Katyar Kaljat Ghusali, Ringan,
Sairat and Enemy,” adds Shetye.
Every year, the Marathi film festival offers the
Goan audience an opportunity to interact with
popular faces in the film industry. Shetye further
informs that Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Swapnil Joshi,
Anjana Sukhani, Pallavi Subhash, Mrunmayee
Deshpande, Amruta Khanvilkar, Mahesh and Medha
Manjrekar, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Sandeep Pathak,
Sachin Kundalkar, Gajendra Ahire, Manva Naik, Paula
McGlynn and Shankar Mahadevan are some of the
celebrities who will grace this year’s screenings.
This year, the organisers have arranged a
workshop on ‘lyric writing’, that will be conducted
by the renowned Bollywood lyricist, Prashant
Ingole. The Belagavi-based lyricist has penned three
epic tracks for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s historical
drama, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ which went on to become
a blockbuster. Ingole produced his first hit with the
song ‘Party on my mind’ for Race 2, back in 2012.
He has many movies to his credit and has also won
accolades for his composition in the film, Mary
Kom for the songs ‘Adhure’ and ‘Ziddi Dil’. “Good
lyrics are the key to making a song connect with
the audience. This workshop is an opportunity for
aspiring Goan lyricists to get acquainted with the
knowledge of song-writing ideas and techniques,”
Shetye expresses.
This year, Shetye is looking forward to a high
response from avid movie-goers from Goa. “Last
year, the festival received over 25,000 visitors. We
believe that the festival has a widespread reach.
We are expecting film lovers from Goa, as well as
neighbouring states. We also hope that aspiring
Goan lyricists take advantage of the opportunity to
learn the art and craft of song writing.”
