Maya Cinemas pushes its formula toward indie films with closure of Osio.

Latino actor Pepe Serna is best known for his role in Scarface as Tony Montana’s friend who is cut open with a vengeful gangster’s chainsaw. Now he stars and produces a colorful film called Aguruphobia, which launched Maya Cinemas Film Series Sept. 23.

Penned by Jade Puga (The Phobic), who also produced the 85-minute film with Richard Montes and Serna (The Guru), the film has won numerous awards at Latino-leaning film festivals throughout the country, including “Best Comedy” at the 2015 Viva Latino Film Festival NYC Int’l and the Colorado Xicanindie Film Fest.

That’s not what makes it a surprising film for Maya and its vice president Larry Porricelli. For a theater long on blockbusters and popcorn fare, it’s the fact that the film is low-budget, independent and made, visibly enough, with limited resources. He says moviegoers are slowly demanding more independent flicks at the theater, and after Old Monterey’s Osio Cinemas closed down in July, Maya has helped fill an indie cinema void in Monterey County.

“There is an outlet here for you, and you don’t have to be in Monterey to watch an independent film,” he says.

Some of the reasons cited for Osio Cinemas’ abrupt closure this summer included lagging business and competition from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. But Porricelli believes the diversity and draw from independent films will help make up for online competition and indie flicks that don’t make for huge receipts. (The partners behind a push to reopen the Osio with Kickstarter funds didn’t return a number of emails and phone calls.)

“We believe there is a market for us because a lot of customers request independent films. We put a good series together, and well, we go from there,” Porricelli says. “It’s good to have that community, instead of just studio features and big pictures.”

But ticket sales still demonstrate big picture movies are more profitable via economies of scale and as prominent producers and actors provide traction versus small-house flicks with little name recognition. Despite that, Porricelli says he’s prioritizing underdogs more every year.

Recent playbills have included films about faith, gender issues and special documentary screenings like one for Food Chains last fall. The idea is to build the audience diversity, which boosts overall brand and high-profit concessions.

As part of an atypical festival that also includes Mr. Holmes, Young Frankenstein, The Goonies, Infinitely Polar Bear and Kahlil Gilbran’s The Prophet, moviegoers will be presented with classics and eccentric films. Aguruphobia opened as this went to press and will show again on Thursday, Sept. 24, and Saturday, Sept. 26, in increasingly vibrant Oldtown Salinas.

In it, Serna portrays an online spiritual guru helping others find their happiness. One key message – that’s at least slighty comedic – emerges: that “enlightenment can be dangerous.” The irony there: The enlightenment that comes with having more independent films involves danger in running fewer big flicks and making it all work financially. That’s the script Maya hopes to rewrite.