Recently, in a new interview, filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra criticized the lies peddled through marketing, highlighting the practice of producers buying tickets to their own movies to inflate box office numbers. Chopra said he stays away from Bollywood events as he doesn’t want to pollute his mind, adding that he has no interest in lying about the commercial performance of his new movie, Zero Se Restart.
A feature-length behind-the-scenes look at 12th Fail, Zero Se Restart failed to draw crowds to theatres. Chopra admitted this in an interview with Dainik Bhaskar. He said, “Marketing these days is all lies. They pay influencers to say whatever they want them to say. All lies. Then, their shows are running empty, so they buy their own tickets and spread lies about the box office collections. I’m admitting honestly that my film was released yesterday, and very few people showed up. Nobody will admit on television that their film failed to open.”
Chopra said he won’t weaken his true identity, adding that he spoke to his daughter about Zero Se Restart’s theatrical performance. He said, “My daughter is studying at Stanford. I woke up this morning and was singing a song. I called her up and told her, ‘Nobody went to watch my film.’ She said, ‘Do you want me to sympathise with you or get inspired by what you’re saying?’ I said, ‘I want you to get inspired.’”
Adding that word-of-mouth is the only true indicator of a film’s success, Chopra further said, “I don’t go out often. I don’t even go to receive awards. I want to protect myself from all the garbage. We are all born pure, and gradually, over time, we become impure. I want to avoid that.”
Starring Vikrant Massey in the role of a UPSC aspirant, 12th Fail emerged as a sleeper hit towards the end of 2023. The film made around Rs. 70 crore at the box office after opening to low numbers. Yet, it continued playing in theatres even after debuting on streaming and television.
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