Prati Kolhapur Mahotsav was inaugurated by Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr. Ashok Chavan and Hon'ble Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Chhagan Bhujbal at Shivajji Park in Bombay (now Mumbai). The festival is a brainchild of Mr.Vinay Kore, Hon'ble Minister for Non-conventional Energy and Horticulture in Maharashtra, who succeeded in bringing Kolhapur to Mumbai with the festival that boasted of carefully selected monuments from Kolhapur, recreated by Nitin Chandrakant Desai of Raja Shivchhatrapati fame. A congregation of over 1 lakh Kolhapurites gathered at Shivaji Park to witness the celebration. The day also marked the establishment of Raja Shri Sahu Kolhapur Vikas Pratisthan that will strive for the development of the historic town.
It was a privilege to cover the premiere of Mr. Desai's Raja Shivchhatrapati (Marathi serial on Star Pravah) held at Cinemax in Bombay. Also, as written earlier, the legendary Hindi films (Bollywood) singer Lata Mangeshkar has ancestral home in Kolhapur. I had a particular picture of Lataji's house in Kolhapur in some hard disk, will check and post it whenever I find it, most probably in this post itself.
Qamaal Mustafa Sikander
STAR Pravah showcases its magnum opus Raja Shivchhatrapati at a star studded theatre premiere in MumbaiTelevision debut at 8.30 pm on November 24th, 2008
Mumbai, Nov. 19, 2008 : Star Pravah, the Marathi general entertainment channel of Star TV, slated for launch on Nov. 24th, 2008, premiered their magnum opus RAJA SHIVCHHATRAPATI at Cinemax today. In a unique presentation of a serial in a movie theatre, the Marathi TV & film glitterati converged to celebrate the grand premiere of the serial that is produced and directed by Nitin Chandrakant Desai.












The event was widely attended by the cast and crew including director Hemant Deodhar, Nirmal D.Jani & Yogesh D. Jani, the Directors of Photography, Ajay Atul - Music Director and Marathi & Bollywood stalwarts like Ashutosh Gowarikar, N.Chandra, Mahesh Kothare, Sonali Kulkarni among others. Mr.Uday Shankar, CEO, Star TV said, "Star Pravah is yet another step in consolidating the leadership of Star networking in India. Star has always been committed to creating benchmarks in the world of television and Raja Shivchhatrapati promises to raise the bar for viewers of Marathi television. We are proud to present this magnum opus epic on the silver screen in keeping with grandeur of the tale and the persona of Shivaji."
As per the press release, Star Pravah channel will be launched on 24th Nov. 2008 and aims to capture the true essence of the deep rooted cultural content of the Marathi hinterland through its innovative content. The USP of the channel is quality entertainment with a realistic depiction of multi genre original content that is contemporary and progressive.
Raja Shivchhatrapati Cast :
Dr.Amol Kolhe as Raja Shivchhatrapati
Mrunal Kulkarni as Jijabai
Avinash Narkar as Shahaji
Yatin Karyekar as Aurangzeb
Uday Sabnis as Vishwasrao
Neena Kulkarni as Badi Begum
Milind Safai as Adil Shah
Neelam Shirke as Soryabai
Rujuta Deshmukh as Saibai
Chaitrali Gupte as Putalabai
Prasanna Ketkar as Tanaji
Sunil Godse as Shahistekhan
Rahul Solapurkar as Baji Prabhu Deshpande
Manoj Kolhatkar as Sonopant Dabir