In films about saints such as Sant Tukaram (1936) and Sant Dyaneshwar (1940) there is an attempt at regional-cultural negotiation of the biographical genre. the lives of the respective saints are presented through emphasis on devotional philosophy, which could be read as non-Brahmin culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Here we see the possibility of challenging caste and gender hierarchies by centralizing popular performative forms such as bhajans and kirtans and, significantly, hymns and words spoken by these Saints commonly called abhanga. Through these films, there is a cultural negotiation that subtly points towards suggestions on issues of caste, gender and form of performance in Prabhat (Ingle, 2017). Historical and popular presence of narrative biography of saints within the Marathi social sphere, representation of popular forms such as abhangas, evoking secular and non-Brahmin Bhakti/devotional philosophy affirming regional Marathi cultural everyday life and the language of Bhakti, evoking the devotional register which is uniquely vernacular and regional which however is not exclusively territorial or governed by the constraints of statist policies' (Ingle, 2017, p. 46). Thus, through films such as Sant Tukaram (1936) and later Sant Dnyaneshwar (1940), Sant Sakhu (1941)) where language has been relocated within devotional philosophy by emphasizing secular and non-Brahminical tendencies, and narrative conflict has assumed a social and caste meaning and the miraculous that manifests the divinity of the saint, is indicative of how the cinematic institution was mobilized to address regional social spaces (Ingle, 2017, p. 46). This reading of Prabhat's saint films then fuels my understanding of how the narrative tendencies and aesthetics of vernacular linguistic performance forms, devotional philosophy, and songs through which the question of caste and gender were negotiated, which were central to generating audiences. imagination of the modern Marathi cultural environment. Prabhat Studio, which was almost synonymous with Marathi cinema in the pre-independence era, through its cinema encompassing aesthetics, ideas and politics attempted to consolidate a modern Marathi middle class and upper caste audience. While in its early period Marathi films attracted its audience from the middle class who were also regular audiences who also frequented Marathi theatre, after 1947 there was a change in this audience which in turn led to the shifting of the themes of the films which were aimed at working class audiences. is not the only audience for Marathi cinema. The World War which had a drastic impact on the regional film industries, including the Marathi film industry, due to cuts in imports of cinematographic films or films and the establishment of a system of control over them, this led to supply to the limited film stock that was given to Hindi cinema emerging as national cinema, this ultimately marked the end of the Studio era in the Marathi film industry. Thus, the post-studio era marked the complete alteration of economic conditions leading to a change in the structure of Marathi film audiences who constituted the working class. There were increasing numbers of industrial and migrant workers living in cities, small towns with their roots still in the villages. This change in audiences led to the production of a new trend within the Marathi film industry with the making of films such as Jay Malhar (1947) and Lok Shahir Ram Joshi (1947) which could be considered. 48)