In the year 1965, when the first Chhattisgarhi film ‘Kahi Debe Sandesh’ was released, no one had thought that an industry would be established in future. Immediately after this ‘Ghar Dwar’ came and then there was a long gap till 2000. By then people had forgotten that two films had already come before this.
CG Film: Satish Jain made ‘Mor Chaiyan Bhuiyan’ and with this the foundation of commercial regional cinema was laid. There was a down fall from time to time, but one film or the other kept coming and the regional industry got a new lease of life. Looking back, more than 200 films were released but 90 percent of these films could not even recover their costs, leave alone earning.
This is probably the first time in 24 years that two films back to back proved to be blockbusters. The first is Mor Chaiyaan Bhuiyan-2 and the second is Handa. However, in terms of overall collection, MCB-2 has left Handa behind.
If we talk about an area like Kondagaon, Halbi, Gondi and Bharti dialects predominate there. Despite this, Chhattisgarhi films are running here for three to four weeks. Shravan Manikpuri, a teacher and writer in Kondagaon area, says, whatever films are being released after ‘Le Suru Hoge Maya Ke Kahani’ are doing well. Earlier, if it lasted barely a week, it used to be a big deal. MCB-2 and Handa have done good business.
Distributor Tarun Soni said, ‘Toora Rickshaw Wala’ was released in Prabhat Cinema on June 4, 2010. While this film was going on, ‘Maya Dede Mayaru’ was released on 16th July. (CG Blockbuster movie) It got a good opening. Some people from the trade said that the first Monday of this film also did well. Apart from the opening, the first Monday usually decides the direction and condition of a film. But from Tuesday this movie started going down and the crowd in ‘Toora Rickshaw Wala’ started increasing.
Producer director Satish Jain told the magazine that the way three Chhattisgarhi films ‘BA Final Year’, ‘MCB 2’ and ‘Handa’ kept the theaters buzzing one after the other and there was a drought in Bollywood, it is by some miracle that not less. This is the golden period of Chhattisgarhi industry.
