Influence of Kannada Theatre on Marathi Theatre is pretty evident from the kind of plays that has been staged in Maharashtra. The professional theatre of Maharashtra, which is rich in quality and excellence, seems to have drawn its inspiration from the Kannada Theatre folk-modes of the Kannada stage, for troupes of the folk artists of Karnataka which were frequently visiting important places in Maharashtra drew the attention of the region. The Yakshagana troupe of Kirki (North Karnataka) which visited Sangli in 1842 on the invitation of its Chief, Srimant Appa Saheb Patwardhan, impressed the Raja and the people so much that they considered it desirable to model the Marathi stage on the performances of the Kannada Yakshagana in order to make it more sustaining than the prevailing folk-patterns of "Tamasha" and "Lalit". Vishnupant Bhave, a "gifted clerk" of the Raja of Sangli, under instructions from his Chief, wrote his first play Seeta Swayamvara possibly before 1845. Encouraged by its success, Bhave wrote "many more" plays in Marathi exactly on the pattern set by the Kannada theatre - Yakshagana and staged them in Mumbai in 1852. As per the details of Bhave performances, it closely resembles the Yakshagana.

However, later, innovations were made in Maharashtra. The performance was remodelled and revitalised. Shantakavi, one of the first Kannada playwrights of the late 19th century, summed up the innovations introduced by Maharashtra into the Kannada Bhagawata performances. He said that they introduced a number of modern musical instruments, musical interludes between the scenes, curtains, scenery, sword fight and some new characters. Later in 1878-79, Anna Kirloskar of Gurlhosur (Belgaum District) who was conversant with Kannada opened a new era on the stage of Maharashtra by translating into Marathi Shakuntala of Kalidasa. His translation is said to have been inspired by the Kannada version of Shakuntala done in 1869 by his friend, Churamuri Seshagirirao. Anna Kirloskar, in addition, borrowed for his Shakuntala tunes from the Javadi, Krishna Parijata and Dasara pada of Karnataka, as is acknowledged by him in the first prints of his plays. Coupled with munificent royal patronage, the Marathi stage grew into full stature by 1880, creating a vogue so impressive and influential that the commercial stage of North Karnataka accepted it as a model to copy. It is but natural that the glory of the Marathi stage made people almost completely lose sight of its original contact with the folk theatre of Karnataka.