I remember the pre-Shwaas era wherein going to the theatres never meant watching Marathi movies. In fact, in my teenage years, Shwaas was my first Marathi movie in theatres. Often cited as the movie that provided the "Shwaas" necessary for Marathi movies to live on, it is a lesson in acting by the great but unheralded Arun Nalawade. That it went to the Oscars is a proud moment for Marathi cinema but more importantly it created the ecosystem for Marathi cinema to prosper in the form of more screens, higher political interest, a new re-energised audeince, large production houses and an intelligent film fraternity.