Marmik was born on August 13, 1960. It was a weekly that went beyond the traditional writing of the Sunday edition of Marathi newspapers.

It carried strong editorials, front-page and centre-spread cartoons by Balasaheb Thackeray and film reviews by Shrikant Thackeray. As you are aware, Maharashtra state was created in May, 1960. Marathi speakers were aggrieved that they were denied the jobs and outsiders, mostly from South, snatched them away. Marmik was born out of this injustice meted out to Marathi people. It published a list of non-Maharashtrians in public and private sector. This resonated well with the Marathi youth. To provide an organised form to vent these grievances, at the instance of Prabodhankar Thackeray, a political party called Shiv Sena was launched on June 19, 1966.

Balasaheb was 33 year old political cartoonist when Marmik was launched and he had left the Free Press Journal (FPJ). The cartoon weekly was planned on the lines of Shankar’s Weekly of K. Shankar Pillai.

Marmik was on the stalls on the Fridays, though dated for the Sundays. Shiv Sena’s first public meeting was announced on October 30, 1966 in Marmik. Later an eveninger Saanj Marmik was launched between 1967 and 1972. Raj Thackeray too drew cartoons for Marmik. Marmik took a back seat after they launched the Marathi daily Saamna (1998) and its Hindi version Dopaharka Saamna (1993).

Marmik is in its diamond jubilee year in 2020. It has been relaunched in a new avtaar with a decent print run. Rashmi Thackeray is the new editor of Marmik. It plans to have physical as well as digital editions, and will experiment with contents like memes. The cover price will be increased from Rs. 5 to Rs. 15.

Earlier they focused on stall sales. They would encourage subscription-driven sale now.