Marathi cinema destined to reach greater heights: Sachin Pilgaonkar

Mumbai: Actor Sachin Pilgaonkar believes Marathi cinema has come a long way and is currently in its most exciting phase.

The 58-year-old actor, who started as a child artiste in the Marathi film "Ha Majha Marg Ekla" in 1962, says he wants other regional cinemas to do equally well.

"Marathi cinema is destined to go to the next level and achieve greater heights. It's about time for Marathi films to make a global mark. Not that it wasn't doing good earlier, but right now it is in an excellent phase," Sachin told PTI.

"I would want Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada cinema to do equally well because at the end of the day they all would be representing Indian cinema which we should strive to make the best," he said.

The actor feels Marathi films are not limited within the language and are trying to be experimental.

Citing an example of his latest blockbuster "Katyar Kaljat Ghusali", he said, "I first started learning Urdu when I was nine. Meena Kumariji started teaching me to get the diction right as we were working in a film.

"Majrooh Sultanpuri sahab (poet) was my neighbour so I learnt from him too. And now, years later I do a Marathi film where each and every dialogue of mine is in Urdu," he said.

Sachin has been part of Hindi as well as Marathi films as a director, singer, composer, but says he now wants to solely focus on acting.

"I would like to focus on acting now and do roles which suit me. I want to entertain audiences. Not that I don't want to direct, I will do that too in the future, but my focus right now is acting," he added.