‘Dear Maya’ director reveals her film didn’t get the release as promised

Sunaina Bhatnagar’s ‘Dear Maya’ marked the comeback of one of the most talented actresses of Bollywood, Manisha Koirala. Her fans were keen on watching the film. However, to everyone’s disappointment the movie hardly got any screens. Recently, at the first edition of the Literature, Information, Film, Frame, TV and Theatre (LIFFT) India Filmotsav 2017 World Cine Fest, Sunaina revealed that she was promised that her movie will be releasing in 400-500 screens across the country, but it was only released in 180.

Talking about the difficulties she faced while shooting the film and during the release, Sunaina said, “It was a script with Manisha Koirala and two young girls, so getting a producer… three girls, with two being around 15-year-old and one being a 40-year-old woman was not the most ideal combination commercially, so these factors were there.”

“I went to producers and I think I met everyone probably. They all liked the film, the story but all wanted to change few things about it like ‘can you bring an element of romance, can the character be 35 in age and not 40, if you could get somebody more sellable’, this film was made independently by a first time producer so that process itself took about a year,” she added. (Also Read: ‘Dear Maya’ movie review: Takes you to an embellishing voyage towards happiness)

Further she also spoke that the film didn’t get a proper release. The filmmaker said, “Although we did get a studio on board to release the film… for whatever reasons I am not clear on what basis the executives decide about the potential of a film, we ended up with very less number screens.”

“We were promised much more… but actually what happened was very different. We were promised around 400-500 screens but ended up with just 180. It was hugely disappointing. I am from Jaipur, it did not even release there, in Lucknow.. places from where it would have got some audience,” she added.

Well, this is really sad as we are sure if the film would have released with proper screens, it would have easily done well at the box office as the reviews were quite good and word of mouth would have helped the movie to grow at the box office.

Inputs From IANS

Murtuza Iqbal

‘Eat Sleep Bollywood Repeat’ is his life Mantra. Dance is his first love and Rani Mukerji is his eternal crush. He is someone who loves being himself, and as for the ones who don’t agree, his reply? “Talk to my hand!”