Riteish Deshmukh shifts his focus to Marathi movies

Marathi cinema is going through a difficult phase and Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh is planning to give it a much-needed boost by launching a production house that will focus on films in his mother tongue.

"My production company will be called Mumbai Film Company, which will mainly produce Marathi films along with Hindi ones. My debut production will be a Marathi film," Deshmukh said.

"I am thinking that I will act in the Marathi film I produce. I am too busy this year so I have kept it for next year," added the 32-year-old.

He says in other states, people prefer watching movies in their own language.

"In Andhra Pradesh, the first choice is Telugu, in Tamil Nadu it is Tamil movies, in Kerala it is Malayalam, in Karnataka it is Kannada, but in Maharashtra it is Hindi.

"When you have a big budget and a superstar, it's a grander experience and you tend to watch it, which is fair enough. In that situation, the survival of a Marathi film becomes really tough," he said.

The actor, who started his Bollywood career with Tujhe Meri Kasam in 2003 and has featured in hits like Masti (2004), Bluffmaster (2005), Malamaal Weekly (2006), Heyy Babyy and Housefull (2010), says he always wanted to act in a Marathi film.

"I am not doing Marathi film for career options. It's something that I wanted to do. It's not that I am doing two-three Marathi films a year. I might do one film in two years or one film in my whole career, but I will do it because I know the language," said the actor.