Ashish Shelar Sends Marathi Cinema to Cannes 2025 And It's a Cultural Branding Masterstroke

In a proud moment for Indian regional cinema, Advocate Ashish Shelar, Cabinet Minister and MLA of Bandra West, took to Instagram to announce a milestone — four Marathi films are headed to the prestigious 78th Cannes Film Festival International Film Festival, from May 14 to 22, 2025.

Under the leadership of the Maharashtra Film Theatre and Cultural Development Corporation, the selected films include:

• ‘Venue’

• ‘Snow Flower’

• ‘Khalid Ka Shivaji’

• ‘Juna Furniture’ (Special Mention) This curated selection represents a bold step in elevating Marathi cinema onto the global stage — and the intent behind it is crystal clear: culture as diplomacy, cinema as branding.
  

  
  

• The Ashish Shelar Effect

  Ashish Shelar’s announcement isn’t just political fanfare. It signals an evolved governance strategy that uses cinema as cultural soft power. In a digital-first, post-pandemic world, the international relevance of regional stories is skyrocketing — and Maharashtra is now positioning itself as a content capital.
  

  Marketing Meets Movies

  This move unlocks:

  • Cross-border collaborations

  • Foreign film festival visibility for Indian regions

  • Brand Maharashtra awareness among global cinephiles

  • A signal to OTTs and studios: Marathi is marketable
    

  It's cultural strategy disguised as cinema promotion — and it's brilliant.

  With Ashish Shelar as the cultural catalyst and Marathi films as the vehicle, Cannes 2025 may just echo with “Kasa Kai?” — because regional storytelling is finally getting its global stage.