Zee Talkies for the Marathi ‘manus’

Zee Network has launched its Marathi movie channel, Zee Talkies

Zee Talkies, the new channel from Zee Network, will showcase Marathi movies, 24x7 – five movies a day, other film related programmes and fillers. The channel will also have entertainment slots pertaining to actors, movies and music.

Nitin Vaidya, director, Zee Regionals, says, “The channel’s approach is going to be wholesome family entertainment. The audience undoubtedly will be the quintessential Marathi speaking individual.” Vaidya adds that there are plans to air some Hollywood movies dubbed in Marathi to garner more viewers across all SECs.

The network introduced a campaign in early August and exhaustively used Marathi media such as radio, print and television to spread the word.

Some of the titles that will be aired on Zee Talkies are ‘Maratha Tituka Melwawa’, popular comedy ‘Hamaal De Dhamaal’, ‘Jait Re Jait’, ‘Gammat Jammat’, ‘Kalat Naklat’, ‘Gadbad Ghotala’, ‘Khabardaar’, and ‘Khichadi’.

The channel claims to have a huge library of Marathi movies. From old classics such as ‘Sadhi Manase’, ‘Jagachya Pathiwar’, ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji’, ‘Molkarin’, ‘Gulacha Ganpati’ to the Oscar nominated ‘Shwaas’ plus all the latest blockbusters.

Zee Talkies’ channel song ‘Lakh lakh chanderi’ is an attraction for movie buffs and it is based on 75 years of Marathi cinema. The song is written by Shrirang Godbole, has music by Ajay-Atul, and a video shot by Manoj Sawant. It has been sung by Ajay and Swapnil Bandodkar.

The network has reportedly signed three production houses, Mahesh Manjrekar’s Ashvami Films, Shrirang Godbole’s Indian Magic Eye and Smita Talwalkar’s Asmita Chitra to give a financial boost to Marathi producers. In the next two years, these three producers will present the network with 15 Marathi films, five films each. After the making of the film, the responsibility of its marketing, distribu