Som

The date [September 14] coincided with the commencement of the holy month of Ramzan. Plus, a crucial India-Pakistan cricket match was to be played the same evening. Saturday, the next day, was Ganeshotsav. Not many would venture into theatres anyways. That’s what I announced on my show a few days prior to the release of these two films.

The industry wasn’t gung ho and weren’t expecting magical numbers from both NANHE JAISALMER and AGGAR, so the near-empty halls that greeted the two films didn’t really catch anyone by surprise.

NANHE JAISALMER had no buzz surrounding it. Plus, Bobby Deol’s standing at the box-office is rock-bottom today and if you follow his careergraph, of the 16 releases in last 5 years, barring HUMRAAZ, to an extent BARSAAT and the recent APNE, he’s had 13 flops. 16 releases, 13 flops… that says it all. Lack of star power was one of the major factors that went against this film.

Besides, NANHE JAISALMER is not a film you’d carry home or recommend to friends, since the writing [the penultimate reels especially] hit the wrong note and ruined things. So, expecting the film to gather momentum with a strong word of mouth was also ruled out.

On the other hand, AGGAR is a reasonably well-made product [Ananth Mahadevan's best, in my opinion], but it came at the wrong time. The Bajajs [its producers] should know by now [they've been distributing/producing films for almost three decades] that Ramzan + cricket match + Ganeshotsav are mighty oppositions. But the harm is done!