Ritiesh Deshmukh is one of the few actors who are active in Bollywood as well as their regional film industry. He has starred in multiple Marathi language films like 'Lai Bhaari' and 'Mauli' and now he is all set to make his directorial debut with Marathi film 'Ved'. Since Maharashtra is also home to Hindi film industry, it is really difficult for Marathi cinema to make a place for itself and in a recent conversation with PTI, Ritiesh talked about this exact issue.

He stated, "It is tough for Marathi cinema to survive with Hindi cinema in the same state when the first preference is to watch Hindi over Marathi cinema. When Marathi movies become a second choice, their theatre share invariably goes down. The idea is how can we go from third to second option to being an equal option. We have to figure out how to attract (audiences). Maharashtra has 12 crore population, I believe 9-10 crore will be Marathi-speaking audience."

Talking about the great potential that Marathi cinema carries, Ritiesh said, "We are able to tap into that substantial base with very few films. Like, Sairat did brilliantly. Lai Bhaari, Natsamrat, these films reached the maximum audience. But we need more such films, we need two films every year."