Anurag Kashyap's jinx to break, finally!

Thursday, February 01, 2007
Anurag Kashyap, the jinxed director of 'completed, but awaiting release' movies like Paanch and Black Friday is a relaxed person now. After all, the court has given a go-ahead to his much controversial, 4 years old movie Black Friday and come this February, the movie will finally be released across the country.

It is notable here that the movie is based on a book written by S Hussain Zaidi about Bombay bomb blasts in 1993. Though the movie was to hit the theatres in 2003, the high court gave a stay order fearing that the result of the movie will affect the free and fare trial of more than 100 bomb blast accused detained in the case. But now, with the case finally coming to an end, the controversial movie is all set to see the light of the day.

Having already worked on the underworld subjects like Satya and Shool, the writer-turned-director Anurag Kashyap thought of making a movie on the worst phase of Mumbai after he was approached by Mid-Day to make a television serial on the same subject. "Mid-Day's Arindam Mitra, who is the producer of the film, approached me with the book (By Zaidi). He wanted to make a television serial on it, and asked me whether I would write it. When I read the book, I was simply moved. It brought old memories of articles that I read in 1993," says Kashyap remembering the germination of an idea later turned into the movie. "I suggested we make a film, instead of a serial. We discussed ideas and finally he gave me the idea for the final structure. I did a lot of research and finally scripted the movie."

"All this while", adds Kashyap, "People kept telling me that its going to be damn controversial." And his worst nightmares came true when the film was put on hold hours before its release. And even though it kept getting praised at various film festivals like Locarno, Bhutan Film Festival, New York Film Festival and MAMI, it couldn't be showcased in front of the Indian audience.

The reason - according to a trade analyst is that the movie deals with real life underworld and police personalities. "Like in the movie, you have a character playing Dawood Ibrahim, and surprisingly, he is even called by the same name, though indirectly," adds the analyst further pointing out that Kay Kay Menon's character in the movie is based on the then police in-charge of the case, Rakesh Maria. "With so much of resemblance, the film still has chances of getting into controversies even after it releases in the theatres," adds the analyst.

Another deterrent which has created a lot of trouble for the makers is the budget. Black Friday was made on a budget of Rs 45 million, but due to the delay in its release, the budget is expected to have shot over by nearly Rs 30 million, inclusive of the debts incurred by co-producer Jhamu Sughand for the delay. But with the film releasing countrywide and having fetched a good deal from Anil Ambani's Adlabs Films, the producer is finally heaving a sigh of relief.

Adlabs, on the other hand, seems to be quite charged up about the fate of the movie. Sunir Kheterpal, COO - Film Distribution, Adlabs Films, said, "Black Friday is a bold and brave story that is waiting to be told to the Indian public and we are very happy to be facilitating its release on the scale and the platform that a film like Black Friday truly deserves." The film releases on February 9th, 2007.

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