Deshmukh admits that Baromas, the film, is yet to release and he has already received proposals for Hindi and English translations of the book. Sadanand Deshmukh's Baromas will release as a Hindi film and Suhas Shirvalkar's 'Duniyadari' is being made into a movie by cinematographer Sanjay Jadhav.Īs is the case with Shala, these writers have benefitted too. Blockbuster Natarang (2010) is based on Anand Yadav's novel by the same name and Jogwa is adapted from three different books. And since Marathi cinema's revival two years ago, rights to several Marathi books have been purchased by filmmakers. However, the trend waned with the decline in quality of Marathi cinema from the 1980s until five years ago. When it gets adapted as a film, more doors for both the book and the author,' says Bokil.Īdaptations of regional literature are not uncommon and several Marathi books and short stories have inspired films in the past, such as Sinhasan (1979) that was adapted from Arun Sadhu's books and Umbartha based on Shanta Nisal's autobiographical 'Beghar'.

'Regional language literature though rich is niche and largely inaccessible due to the lack of good translators. Bokil claims that the number of copies he has sold over the last 10 months alone equals half the sales made in four years. The strategy worked and Shala, named after the book, won critical acclaim and a slew of awards after its release in January.īut Dahake isn't the only one who has benefitted from the association. At the same time, the director was aware that the popularity of the book will also help draw crowds to the theatres to watch his Marathi language film. It was the strong connect he had shared with the book since he first read it in 2005 that prompted Sujay Dahake to adapt Milind Bokil's famous Marathi novel 'Shala' for his debut film of the same name. The success of their screen adaptations is also boosting sales of popular Marathi books

Milind bokil books