Zee Gaurav, the benchmark for excellence in Marathi films and theatre industry is in its 15th year and has received tremendous support and respect from the Marathi entertainment industry. It has brought back competition and encouraged brilliance and talent in the Marathi industry since its establishment. The nominations for the best and most competent performance were announced for the prestigious titles in Hotel Westin, Goregaon.
This year, Zee Gaurav has announced nominations to the prominent and talented personalities for outstanding performance from 23 categories in films, 13 categories in commercial plays and 12 categories in experimental plays. This year Award ceremony will be in two parts, Chitra Gaurav and Natya Gaurav. The winners for the esteemed titles for films awards will be announced with the glamour, glory and grandeur Zee Chitra Gaurav, which is held on Friday, March 13, 2015, while the awards for the plays, i.e., Natya Gaurav will be held on 26th March 2015.
The whole of Marathi Films, Stage and Television Industry turned up for the grand function on Sunday evening, when the nominations for the Zee Gaurav awards for Marathi films and Marathi theatre were announced.
The nominations in various categories were revealed in following order:-
First, it was experimental theatre, followed by Marathi Commercial theatre and then nominations for the films. In the experimental plays category, ‘Tee’, ‘Goshta Simple Pillachi’ & ‘Zopala’ with maximum nominations, will compete with many new plays. There will be tough competition in the commercial theatre category, plays like ‘Goshta Tashi Gamtichi’, ‘Kalat Nakalat’, ‘Tya Tighanchi Goshta’, ‘Dhantadhyan’, ‘Begum Memory Aathvan Gulaam’ found nominations in different sections.
In the Marathi films section, Raghuveer Kulkarni, Vidyadhar Pathare and Milind Ingale were the judges to shortlist the nominations. And, five films found their nominations in the Best Film’s section. The films are ‘Elizabeth Ekadashi’, ‘Happy Journey’, ‘Lai Bhari’, ‘Lokmanya Ek Yugpurush’ and ‘Poshter Boyz’. While Elizabeth Ekadashi received maximum 13 nominations in different categories, super hit film ‘Lai Bhari’ received 12 nominations. Many film and TV serial artistes like Spruha Joshi, Leena Bhagwat, Sharad Ponkshe, Ashwini Ekbote, Shashank Ketkar and others, who form a part of Marathi stage, were there to cheer up for their plays. In the Commercial Marathi drama section, Sanjay Mone, Ravindra Divekar and Swati Chitnis were the judges, while in the experimental drama section Dr. Anil Bandivadekar, Vijay Kenkre and Pradeep Rane were the judges.
Lalit Prabhakar, the lead of popular serial ‘Julun Yeti Reshimgathi’ anchored the show, which comprised of felicitating the judges and announcing the nominations of each category through A/V display. Among the prominent personalities present for this function were, Dr. Jabbar Patel, Kamlakar Sontakke, Mr. Nitin Keni, Mahesh Kothare, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Ankush Chaoudhari, Ravi Jadhav, Sanjay Chhabria, Nanubhai Jaisinghani, Lata Narvekar, Ramesh Bhatkar, Sanjay Jadhav, Sharad Ponkshe, Madugandha Kulkarni and others.