"Some of my bad films became successful" - Neha Dhupia

Director Shivam Nair didn't quite have a good start to his career as a Bollywood director; his debut flick Ahista Ahista which starred Abhay Deol disappeared from the screens in quick time despite having one of the best scores created by Himesh Reshammiya. Now after a two year break, the film maker is back with Maharathi.

Though in terms of genre, the film sees a marked difference for Shivam who moves from being at the helm of an emotional love story to a thriller; wasn't Neha Dhupia worried that Shivam's first film wasn't quite a success? "Regardless of its box office performance, I honestly thought that Ahista Ahista was a really nice movie. In the end, commercial success is always not the right parameter to judge a film. Sometimes big movies are bad and they turn out to be such successes while vice versa may not always be true", Neha defends her director here.

"Shivam is very talented and the other day when I was having a conversation with him, he candidly confessed that he had a different feeling this time around when compared to Ahista Ahista. Here he could feel a certain positive energy around the film as it came closer to release. He said that the buzz was just missing from Ahista Ahista but in case of Maharathi that was not the case", Neha talks about the movie in a positive tone.

How about the kind of vibes that she herself is getting? "I am a getting a real great vibe and truly believe that Maharathi would be acclaimed both critically and commercially", is Neha's quick response. However, she goes on to add, "But then honestly, after working on a film for so many months, you tend to loose perspective about it.

Moreover, you can't always rely upon people around you who give you feedback because they may not give the true picture. You don't know whether they are honest or not. The way a mother would never find fault in her own child, the same happens in case of an actor talking about his/her own film. It has happened to me too."

Really? Laughs Neha, "Yeah, you know some of my films have been really-really good and I was very positive about them but they failed. On the other hand one or two were so bad and I didn't expect them to run but they became successful! So you know, it is very difficult to judge and it's best to leave it to the audience to decide."