Satish Kulkarni

Satish Kulkarni (born 24 August 1954) is a Marathi film producer and distributor. He is known as one of the youngest film producers to break into the Marathi film industry and for being one of the film makers to change the face of Marathi cinema during the Golden Age of Marathi cinema in 1980s and 1990s along with Mahesh Kothare, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Lakshmikant Berde & Ashok Saraf. He is also known for giving a break to many actresses like Varsha Usgaonkar, Charushila Sable, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Nivedita Saraf, Nishigandha Wadh, Archana Joglekar & Sukanya Kulkarni on the big screen.

Early life

Kulkarni was born in a Marathi Hindu family on 24 August 1954. His father was a businessman and mother, a house wife. At an early age he started supporting his family by advertising and outdoor hoarding business. Kulkarni considers Sharad Pilgaonkar, father of Sachin Pilgaonkar as one of his mentors during his struggling days and V.Shantaram in the later years of his success. He went to Wilson College, Chowpatty in Mumbai and graduated in Arts & Political Science.

Early career

Kulkarni started his career as an outdoor hoarding vendor in the early 1970s where the film hoardings were painted with hands. This slowly got him into the field of cinema after interacting with distributors and producers. He ventured into film production with a friend by investing some of his savings but soon faced production troubles when his friend fled the process midway. This left Kulkarni to finish the film with a star-cast which had Ashok Sarad & Nilu Phule. The name of the film was Galli te Dilli.