Many woes of date clashes

Actor-producer Jackky Bhagnani speaks to SANGEETA YADAV about how date clashes and movie delays impact small budget films

Actors turning producers is not new in Bollywood but when Jackky Bhagnani added this feather to his cap in 2016 with Sarbjit, a new door opened up for him. From getting the film off the floor to overseeing its release, producing a film is no cakewalk as producers are involved with the creative process and deciding the release date. When Dil Junglee starring Tapsee Pannu and Saqib Saleem clashed with Aiyaary, the makers decided to push the release from February 16 to March 9, 2018.

“Films are being postponed or preponed for various reasons. It’s unfortunate that a number of smaller films suffer because of a big clash at the box office. Though things are changing and smaller films are also making their mark but the fact remains that such kind of movies might not have the A-listers and don’t get as many shows. As a result, they  get completely diluted at the box office. We need to make a space for smaller films as well. Date clashes leave an impact. Within the industry, we need to make space for all kinds of films,” Jackky Bhagnani, the producer of Welcome to New York, tells you.

To get a fair and a good run of the theatre, the producers and director of Dil Junglee decided to postpone the film to Match 9, 2018. “It all started with Padmavat that finally saw the light of the day on January 26, 2018. On the same day Aiyaary was supposed to release but to avoid the clash, Aiyaary was pushed to February 9, 2018, and finally released on February 16. We shifted Dil Junglee. Having said that, I strongly believe that content is the king. If the movie has a good storyline, it will go places and get its audience,” Bhagnani explains.

Gone are the days when the producers were only known to invest in a film. Today, they are equally involved in the creative process and are as important as the director. “Back in the 90s, there was only a producer and a director. Now the roles have been divided and demarcated. There is a producer, a presenter, a studio partner and distributing partner. The director has always been the mother of the movie. A producer is the provider. Thus, he is as important as a director. It is the studios who would invest but not part of the creative process,” Bhagnani says.

The time for small budget films are tough as it becomes very challenging for them to get enough theatres to hold the screening and when they do get a chance, films are pulled down within a by the distributor. “It’s very hard for smaller films to leave its mark, especially now, when the time frame to prove the merit of the film has become so short. A lot of films which don’t do well in the first three to four days really don’t get a fair chance to prove themselves. Its merit is really becoming smaller and is becoming difficult for them to make an impact. There are a lot of films that actually get noticed by the audience only after a week but if they are pulled off, that really does not give them a  chance. I’m glad that there are other mediums like Netflix and Amazon that have platforms where such films can be showcased,” Bhagnani says.

Recalling his acting days, Bhagnani feels that though he got noticed as an actor in F.A.L.T.U and Youngistan, there were some films that didn’t do well at the box office but he took them as a learning experience.

“Failures teach you more than success. Success can go to your head. It is the failure which teaches you what you should not do. If you are a sensible person, you learn the most from your failure and that is how my journey has been. But I have no regrets.

Critics have been hard on me and I know that they are doing their job and I have a lot to learn. I’ve been taking a lot of acting classes to hone  my skills. My biggest achievement as an actor would be the appreciation from the audience and the critics,” Bhagnani says adding that he has a  potential to be a good dialogue writer as well.

After his stint in Bollywood, Bhagnani is now set to make his debut in Tamil Cinema with Mohini — a horror-thriller. “It is too early to talk about this movie but it is going to change everything for me. I feel Tamil films have made a mark for themselves and they have evolved over a period of time. A lot of Tamil films are at par with Bollywood, they are experimenting a lot with new themes and in some degree, they have even better than Bollywood in terms of taking a stand on certain issues, and taking more risks,” Bhagnani opines.

But he tells you that working for a horror genre is not easy. “Horror is a  difficult genre. One has to do a lot of training before you shoot. It is exhausting —  both mentally and physically,” Bhagnani says, who celebrated Valentine’s Day by going to a single’s party.

“People don’t have the time for heart breaks they feel that they are better off single if they don’t feel that that particular relationship has any merit to be in a long-term relationship.  Everyone is having fun but nobody is willing to be in a committed relationship. A lot of people have commitment phobia. You fall in love with your freedom,” Bhagnani says.