Shwaas, the Marathi film that was India's official entry at the Oscars in 2004 is getting several new avatars.
It is being dubbed in Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. Distributors in Gujarat and South India, like Prasad Film Labs, have also expressed interest in dubbing this heartwarming film in other languages.
Shwaas -- directed by Sandeep Sawant and produced by well known Marathi actor Arun Nalawade with seven other producers -- gave the Marathi film industry fresh vigour. And it created history when it was selected to represent India at the Oscars. The first Marathi film in 50 years to win a national award -- the last was the moving film Shyamchi Aai (1953) by Acharya aka Prahlad Keshav Atre -- Shwaas bagged the National Award for Best Film in 2004.
Says Arun Nalawade, producer and main protagonist of Shwaas: "The dubbing of Shwaas in Hindi, Bengali and Tamil is almost complete. It will be released in the first week of June after getting the necessary censor certificates. A few others have also shown interest in the dubbed version of Shwaas. So later it will be dubbed in Telugu, Gujarati and Kannada."
Nalawade was largely responsible for bringing this touching story of a grandfather's affection for his little grandson, who has an incurable eye disease (occular cancer of both eyes), to the screen. For this production Nalawade got together Dipak Chaudhari, Mohan Parab, Vishwas Naik, Nareshchandra Jain, Devidas Bapat and produced the film. They also formed a trust for the poor with the money people donated after seeing the film.
Dipak Chaudhari says, "Preeti Sagar has done an excellent job of dubbing this milestone Marathi film in Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. Preeti's company has done Iqbal in Hindi, Bengali and Tamil.
"Censor board chief Sharmila Tagore has also shown an interest in seeing the dubbed Bengali version of Shwaas. Prasad Film Labs would like to show the dubbed version in the South. There is also a possibility of Shwaas being dubbed in English to release it in the US and other countries, as it has created a lot of interest there too."
More information about this can be obtained if contacted at dscvision@rediffmail.com.