Release of Nay Varanbhaat Loncha Kon Nay Koncha advanced by week to 14 January

At a time when many filmmakers are postponing the release of their projects because of the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases across the country, the makers of Mahesh Manjrekar's upcoming directorial venture Nay Varanbhaat Loncha Kon Nay Koncha have decided to advance its release by a week.

The film, which was scheduled to be released on 21 January, will now be out on 14 January.

The new release date was announced by the filmmaker on social media. The development comes in the wake of the makers of Prabhas's much-awaited multi-language romantic drama Radhe Shyam, whose release date was 14 January, opting to wait it out due to the spike in coronavirus cases.

This makes things a lot easier for Manjrekar's film as there is hardly any competition at the box office now. All previous releases such as 83 (2021) and Pushpa: The Rise will be winding up their theatrical run by next week. This means the Marathi film will have way more screens and theatres than it would have got otherwise. 

The film is based on a story by the late playwright Jayant Pawar and stars Umesh Jagtap, Kashmera Shah, Chhaya Kadam, Rohit Haldikar. Ashwini Kulkarni, Ganesh Yadav, Atul Kale and Shashank Shende, as well as the child artists Prem Dharmadhikari and Prashant Nagvekar. 

The decision to go ahead with the release of the film was made after the state government announced that theatre operations would be allowed to continue. A source from the Marathi film industry told Cinestaan, "As soon as the Maharashtra government said that cinema halls wouldn't be shut, the producers of a few upcoming Marathi films opted to go ahead and have started promoting their films."

But given the uncertainty regarding how many days cinema halls will be allowed to function, this decision could prove a risky one.