THE BIGGEST PANGA WITH PANGA NAA LO

Director: Rajen Kothari

Banner: Vidisha Production Pvt Ltd

Cast: Om Puri, Satish Shah, Supriya Pathak

Release date: 20/4/07

1st week gross: 6 lacs approx( business of cinema)



The schedule of the film started on 8th August, 2005. Seems long ago. Yes it was long ago. The shooting of the film was completed by feb/march 2006. Then the film took an eternity in the post production and the first copy was out by diwali' 06.



Then started the next struggle. Finding a buyer. Mukta, Adlabs, UTV, PEN, Ashtavinayak, Percept and many others. Finally PEN took up audio video rights and Adlabs gave a green signal for theatrical release.



Now tareekh pe tarrekh, taarekh pe tareekh, it was slated for release mid march. Why? the cricket world cup! Empty cinema halls. No big releases.



But the Indian team had different aspirations. They managed an eary exit. Now the entertainment world wanted to capitalize. Bigger films were pushed ahead.



Finally PNL was released with roughly 22 prints all over India one week later than promised that is 20th of April 2007. Masses had very little idea that there is a film called PNL running in the halls. Reasons. Well many. THe promos were only aired on Zee Network, no MTV, VTV or Radio Mirchi. Media tie up broken beacuse release was shifted to a date close to Abhi Ash wedding and how could they not cover that.



20th April 2007, worse than expected the morning shows were cancelled in almost all the halls of Mumbai due to lack of patronage. The next shows managed crowds but in double digits only. To add to this there were chaotic misprints in the ads published in the newspaper. The timings printe were totally differenty than actual show timings. As for example the Bombay Times showed following timings (Fame Andheri 12.30, 2.30,8.35) but the actual paln was (Fame Andheri 12 30 pm, malad 2 30 pm and kandivali 8 35 pm). Finally the ad was corrected Sunday onwards but the ad disappeared all together from Monday onwards.



Was it a lack of trust in the film. Was it sheer negletion or was this film used only to take the over flow of Bheja Fry? Whatever it was, was it PROFESSIONALISM???