Here's Why Raja Shivaji Will Have 8-Minute Shorter Runtime In Hindi Than Marathi

Riteish Deshmukh is bringing to the big screens the life and times of the legendary Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in his next directorial Raja Shivaji. The movie will release on May 1 and expectations are high from it. The cast of the film is absolutely stacked, with Abhishek Bachchan, Genelia Deshmukh, Amol Gupte, Vidya Balan, Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan and more set to feature in pivotal roles in this historical epic.

A report in Bollywood Hungama has stated that the runtime of Raja Shivaji in Marathi and Hindi will be different. In fact, the Hindi version is shorter than the original Marathi version by 8 minutes. As per the website, the Marathi version of Raja Shivaji received the censor certificate on April 24. As per the certificate, its runtime is 195.05 minutes, which is 3 hours 15 minutes and 5 seconds.

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On April 28, the Hindi version of Raja Shivaji was certified, and the runtime mentioned in it is 187.05 minutes. In other words, Raja Shivaji is 3 hours, 7 minutes and 5 seconds long. Thus, the Hindi version is shorter than the Marathi version by exactly 8 minutes.

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About this difference, a source told the website, "Usually, two versions of a film have the exact same duration. However, Riteish Deshmukh has tried a novel experiment and kept the narrative crisp for the Hindi audience. Meanwhile, for the Marathi audience, which would probably be more attracted to the film due to the local flavour, the actor-director has gone for a longer version.”

Interestingly, the Marathi trailer of Raja Shivaji was also a little longer than the Hindi version. The movie has sold around 43,000 tickets in India, collecting nearly ₹1.60 crore so far. The Marathi version is leading the advances with 40,070 tickets sold, followed by the Hindi version, which has contributed ₹4.50 lakh to its domestic biz so far.