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Chandni Bar MADHUR Bhandarkar’s Chandni Bar, which had cost the producers barely Rs 15 million, was shot on a single set in Hyderabad, does not have a single song and worse, is dark and depressing. And yet, it has turned out to be the biggest hit of the festive season.
At a time when the biggest multi-starrers like Subhash Ghai’s Yaadein and Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lajja have proved damp squibs at the box-office, this surprise hit has set spirits soaring. "It is Satya (another low-budget hit) set in a dance bar," says an excited Shyam Shroff, who is distributing the film in Mumbai. "Chandni Bar has all the reasons for not being a hit," he continues jokingly. "It has no stars, except Tabu who is considered more of an actress than a star. It has no songs and was released without any TV promos. Even the director is a negative — his first film was a flop!" For Bhandarkar, the budget of Chandni Bar was
far less than that that of Trishakti his debut film. "That
film was made at a cost of Rs 25 million," he quips. "For Chandni
Bar, we shot on a single set and kept changing the furniture, so
that things looked different. "We didn’t have the money to change
sets." |
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Despite the positive buzz about the film before release, Shroff admits that he got interested only after viewing its rough cut on video. "To be doubly sure, I bought it only after it was cleared by the censors," he informs. "I knew the film was indeed powerful, but still, I was being extra cautious." Observes Taran Adarsh, a trade analyst: "The success of Chandni Bar will surely open the doors for good, entertaining films made on shoe-string budgets. It proves that you need not have to specialise on love triangles and overblown wedding videos so as to find an audience." — MF |
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