Mumbai, June 15 (IANS) Renowned filmmaker Shekhar Kapur decided to turn back the clock and share how his iconic drama “Masoom” failed to draw the audience into the theatres.
He shared that he was told, almost accusingly that he has made an artistic movie.
Taking to his IG, Shekhar recalled walking into an empty theatre “I walked into the theatre .. and there were only two people in there, and one was me! The vast emptiness hit me like an avalanche. This was the end of my career as a film maker .. which hadn’t actually started .. for Masoom was my first film. Unfortunately an ‘Article’ film.. as the black marketeers labelled it… that was the Friday of the release. All theatres went empty. As they were on Saturday, Sunday, Monday Tuesday..” he wrote.
Shekhar said that after witnessing the initial response to his first film, he thought of doing something else for a living.
However, as the distributors were thinking of pulling the movie out of the cinema halls, things changed for the better.
“On Thursday I got a call from them saying that people had started to come in. On Friday the houses were full. On Saturday tickets were being sold in black by those that called Masoom an ‘Article’ film. And the scramble to find more theatres began …. and Masoom was declared a hit . .. what happened on Thursday ?? I don’t know .. and have always wondered . What if they didn’t come on Thursday ? The Distributors would have given up the other theatre too .. and Masoom would not have been a film anyone saw ..” he remembered.
The ‘Mr India’ maker revealed that as he prepares to take “Masoom, the next generation” into production, the old memories continue to haunt him.
Shekhar ended the post with a question, “what happened on Thursday ? Did my ( or the film’s) destiny just change overnight ?,” he concluded.
–IANS
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