“After ‘Radio’, Nobody Was Willing To Touch ‘Kajraare'”

To a lot of people in the trade, Bhushan Kumar’s move to recently release his Himesh Reshammiya starrer, Kajraare, in just two cinemas of the country, that too, in matinee shows and without any promotion whatsoever, came as a shock. The film is directed by Pooja Bhatt. The trade was unable to understand why ‘Kajraare’ was released so indifferently by T-Series. In fact, the film’s leading man and music director, Himesh Reshammiya, was rumoured to be miffed with this decision of the music company. There were also rumours that T-Series had wanted Himesh to invest Rs. 1 crore for the publicity of the film. The wild stories added that when Himesh refused to do so, T-Series released the film without any publicity and without informing Himesh about the same.

Now dismissing all these stories as a figment of people’s imagination, producer Bhushan Kumar clarifies that he had no option but to release the film on a low-key note. Says Bhushan, “We made ‘Kajraare’ on a lavish scale and spent over Rs. 16 crore on its making. But before we could release ‘Kajraare’, the small-budget Radio, starring Himesh in the lead, was released and it bombed at the box-office, thereby ruining the prospects of our film, ‘Kajraare’. After ‘Radio’, nobody was willing to touch ‘Kajraare’. Our heavy investment was stuck and the film was lying in the cans for a long time. At this critical juncture, Mahesh Bhatt, who has written the film’s script, suggested that it would be better to release ‘Kajraare’ on a satellite channel before giving it a theatrical release. He explained that by doing so, we would be able to recover at least a part of our investment, and the film would also reach the maximum audience. This made sense to us, so we decided to technically release ‘Kajraare’ in the theatres so that it could pave the way for its satellite release. After that, we approached Colors channel and sold it the film’s satellite rights.” Talking about the rumours of him asking Himesh to spend Rs. 1 crore on the promotion, Bhushan said, “When I can spend Rs. 16 crore to make the film, do you think I will shy away from spending another crore for the publicity of the film?” According to Bhushan, he had already spent over Rs. 2 crore on the promotion of the film on television. “But when even that did not create any buzz for the film as Himesh’s market standing had taken a beating, and the music of the film also did not pick up, we decided to explain the situation to Himesh. Though he was not happy with our decision, he did not raise any objection.”

‘Kajraare’ will be telecast on Colors in December.