Shilpa Jamkhandikar

Mumbai: Sanjay Leela Bhansali is an angry man. While lashing out at critics who were “out to get him”, he has been quoted widely that Saawariya has been doing very well in movie halls across the country.

Bhansali has also claimed in past interviews that it is his best work to date but collections for the film have dropped dramatically. So was Saawariya a victim of overhype or simply a bad product?

The film’s collections, which were 75-80% for the weekend have dropped to almost 50%. The other big Diwali release, Om Shanti Om, has managed to maintain its weekend collections, says trade analyst Amod Mehra.

Sony Pictures, however, claims that Saawariya has earned more than Rs 50 crore since its release but audience reactions tell a different story. “Saawariya may have made money but audiences are disappointed with the end product and therein lies its failure.

After building up expectations to such a level, the fall has been much harder,” say trade sources. “If you hype a film that has a small budget and there is not much at stake, it can help get the audiences to the theatres.

It is much tougher to draw the line when it is a big budget film where the stakes are high,” says director Madhur Bhandarkar. So how much hype is too
much? “I would hype my film only to the extent that it creates a buzz in the market. If it is overdone, there is a danger that you may raise expectations
so high, that it will be difficult to live up to them,” says Vivek Agnihotri, whose film Goal releases soon.

“Pitting films against each other and convincing people that your product is better than the others, serves no purpose at all,” he adds. Mehra also believes that it is a Catch 22 situation when it comes to hype.

“There is a very thin line that needs to be paid attention to. When you don’t hype the movie, there’s the danger of the crowd not coming in. Saawariya had a sad ending, and that didn’t really go down well with festival audiences,” he says.