Filmmaker Shubham Shevade shares how his roots shaped the Marathi indie film Magazine

UPDATE - follow-up to 'Magazine': How Shubham Shevade turned a Maharashtra village into a dazzling Marathi indie: Filmmaker Shubham Shevade opens up about his creative journey behind the Marathi indie feature Magazine, which released in theatres on October 23. The film follows Velu, a privileged Pune teenager who visits his ancestral village of Dattawad for a transformative experience. Shubham drew heavily from his own life, having studied engineering in Pune and filmmaking in Los Angeles before working there for three years. He chose to return to India during the pandemic to tell his own stories rather than immigrant tales demanded abroad.

Making the Film

Shubham's wife and producer, Aparna Kulkarni, hails from Dattawad, the village where the project took root after Shubham fell in love with the location and began photographing it. The film features lush green sugarcane fields, large trees, and a 100-year-old swing in an old mansion, capturing a romanticized view of rural life. Shubham first built a storyboard without a final screenplay, using a choppy cutting style and many montages to create fragments of memory. The written script was just forty-five pages containing forty-five scenes without dialogue, and actors received their lines only two days before shooting.

Release and Promotions

The theatrical release faced a crowded market of competing Hindi and Marathi films, prompting a strategy to launch on limited screens and increase shows based on audience response. Shubham admits he and Aparna felt delusional during production when people advised against making it, but they stayed realistic with distribution. They promoted the film widely with trailer launches in schools, theatre groups, and acting institutes. A special open-sky premiere in Dattawad drew over 2,500 local residents who grew emotional seeing their own village on screen.

Context

Independent regional cinema often relies on grassroots promotional strategies and unconventional distribution models when lacking backing from major studios. Filmmakers frequently draw on personal hometown connections and local community screenings to build early momentum for non-mainstream releases.