Notebook victimized

Conspiracies to destroy a film at the box office are not unheard of in the Malayalam cine industry.

The modus operandi is very simple- hire gangs of hooligans, make them sit with the audience and hoot continuously throughout the film and point out the flaws. This soon makes other members of the audience sick of the film and they stop coming to the theatres to see it. Eventually the film flops.

However, the film fraternity denies the existence of such strategies.

Director Vinayan had made such claims when his films with Prithviraj crashed at the box office. Now, director Roshan Andrews says that his new film, Notebook had become a victim of such a strategy.

The film, with newcomers in the lead roles, was about a group of teen-aged students at a boarding school. Many felt that the "harmless pranks" of the students in the film bordered at grossness. When the film was released, there were instances of hooting and cat-calls in the theatres.

The director says that some people in the film industry were jealous of Notebook and had hired those gangs to destroy his film. He had also accused some critics of being unfairly harsh at his film.

He has Chota Mumbai to look forward to now.