‘I never had to work so hard to release a film’

Nagesh Kukunoor says he had to postpone Mod’s release to avoid losing out to a commercial film.

Director Nagesh Kukunoor had postponed the release of his next film, Mod, from September 30 to October 14 to avoid losing out to a commercial film.

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He admits that making the film was smoother than finally releasing it. “In my entire career, I never had to work so hard to release a film because this time, promotion and marketing budgets have gone out of control,” says Kukunoor, who made films like Hyderabad Blues(1998), Iqbal(2005) and Dor (2006).

However, he insists his Ayesha Takia-Rannvijay Singh starrer wasn’t postponed, saying, “There is always some juggling involved when you position your film, unless it’s a really big one.

You have to make sure it’s slotted in the best possible way,” he says, adding, “We were continuously talking to all theatre owners and distributors about how many shows we were going to get in each and every corner of the country. In Nizam territory (Hyderabad) for example, Mahesh Babu, who is massive in the Telegu industry, had a film releasing on October 7. So the theatre owners begged us to bring the film on October 14, so that he could give us decent shows.”

Like any other filmmaker, Kukunoor is banking on the first three days of release to make his film a success. “Now, the market has actually become concentrated on the first three days. If in those three days, you don’t get premium shows like the evening slots, then it’s literally better if you don’t release it,” says the director.