Story of miraculous turnaround of fortunes of Shekhar Kapur's Masoom on a 'Fateful Thursday'
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker reminisces on how his debut film almost died in its first week
By Rajesh Ahuja
One has heard stories of miraculous turnaround in fortunes of many a Bollywood star . An interesting story in this context is that of a fortuitous turn of events that marked the box office fate of iconic social drama Masoom, directed by Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.
In a post on Instagram, Shekhar Kapur, known for critically acclaimed films like Masoom, Bandit Queen and Elizabeth, revealed how his debut film Masoom almost died in its opening week of release before a miraculous turnaround in fortunes on 'A Thursday' ensured that it went on to become an iconic film in the history of Bollywood.
In the Instagram post, Shekhar Kapur revealed that even though the distributors loved Masoom when they saw it, the movie unfortunately screened to empty halls in the first few days of its release, prompting the distributors and theatre owners to decide to take off the movie from the theatres before a miraculous turn of events on the opening Thursday.
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Shekhar Kapur reveals that his debut film Masoom almost died in its opening week but for a miraculous turn of events on a 'Fateful Thursday' |
Narrating the events of that fateful week, Shekhar Kapur said, 'we finished the movie before we showed it to anyone. Before we sold a single part of it. That was the pleasure of making films those days.
Distributors loved the movie when they saw it. But on release the halls were completely empty....I remember going to the first day first show, and the cinema hall was completely empty...except for me and a young couple in a dark corner that showed no interest in the film at all. ''
The same story was repeated on the second day on Saturday and on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and ...Wednesday.
''That was the Friday of the release. And the same story on Sunday Monday and, again, on Tuesday, 'Shekhar Kapur said.
''No one went to see the film. The distributors called to say that they are taking the film off the theatres on Saturday.
We know that you have made a great moie...but sorry, the theatre owners are going to take the movie off...there are no audiences,'the filmmaker reminisced.
The decision of the distributors came as a bolt from the blue for Shekhar, who was just starting his innings as a filmmaker after quitting a lucrative career as CA.
''OH well', I thought, there go my dreams of becoming a filmmaker. I remember eating a lot of chaat that day at Hill road. That was my passion other than filmmaking,'he says.
Little did he know that a miraculous turn for the film was just round the corner. A call by his uncle Vijay Anand the next day caught him by surprise.
'The next day , my uncle, the famous director Vijay Anand called me and said, 'hey Shekhar, can you arrange some tickers for us? The house is full.
What? I rushed to the theatre and saw lines outside waiting for tickets..What happened? I asked...What changed in a day?, he remembers asking himself.
From thereon there was no stopping the film which went on to create history.
Reminiscing about the turn in fortunes for the film, Shekhar Kapur said, 'the distributors by then haď to beg borrow and steal to retain some of the theatres. And of course, thereafter, the film never stopped and went on to create history .
I'll still never know what happened between the Wednesday and the Thursday. Did the stars align differently?..,A very sudden word of mouth? Phew... imagine if that Thursday had never happened, there may have been no Masoom and may have had to go back to being a chartered accountant. ''
Released in 1983, Masoom, which makes the directorial debut of Shekhar Kapur, was an adaptation of the 1980 novel Man, Woman and Child by Erich Segal .
Masoom starred Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi in lead roles with Tanuja, Supriya Pathak and Saeed Jaffrey in pivotal roles.
The film starred Jugal Hansraj, Aradhana and Urmila Matondkar as child actors.
The screenplay, dialogues and lyrics are by Gulzar with music by R.D. Burman.
The film was later remade into a Telugu movie named Illalu Priyuralu and in Turkish as Bir Akşam Üstü.
Masoom is the story of a couple Indu and DK whose married life is shattered after revelation of the husband's affair and a child from that relationship.
The film won a lot of critical acclaim. It won six Filmfare awards, Including for Best film(critics), Best actor for Naseeruddin Shah ,best music director for R D Burman and Best lyricist for Gulzar.
Masoom is considered one of the iconic films in the history of Bollywood.
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