Anubhav Sinha looks back at Bheed getting ‘unprecedented love’ but disappointing box office: ‘Cried bucket inside of me’

The film was released amid social media negativity, where people had taken offence over Sinha making an “anti-government” film. Upon its release, the film opened to rave reviews but wasn’t a success. When asked about the box office reportage of his film, Sinha told indianexpress.com that he doesn’t look at it as “fair or unfair.”

“Obviously, I would have liked the film to do well. It was actually very surprising, because the amount of love and respect I was receiving was unprecedented. It got me as much love if not more as Thappad and Article 15. It was disappointing. But I am assuming that the audience is in some sort of state of mind. They will come around. It is the law of nature. There is something happening with the audience with regards to them going to the theatres.

“This is how I looked at it. I was very disappointed, I cried a bucket inside of me, but it is ok. They will watch it. Films sometimes are discovered later. RaOne was discovered late, 12 years too late.”

The filmmaker, who is currently gearing up for the release of his production Afwaah, said what he is unhappy about is the gaze of people, who have started to look at film only from the prism of how much it collected at the box office. Sinha said this culture has started to get “very annoying.”

“Most people don’t understand, film is an art form, which is one of the most difficult ones, not only in terms of the skills required to make it but also in terms of putting it together, executing it, releasing it. Then there are various other units feeding off it, which in today’s parlance is called ‘content’. That content is being created off the film.

“But unfortunately, dissing out a film is consumed more, so that content is of mostly dissing out, which people are consuming it. Human nature is such that we subscribe to dissing much more. In this entire game, there is some serious misinformation going on about the weekend, the lifetime, the Friday, the Monday– which the audience is not realising is coming in the way of their experience of a film. When they finally sit to watch a film, they are loaded with so much fake information that they can’t enjoy it, for what it is.”

Contrary to what a section claims, Sinha said multiplex chains never put figures of films on the day itself. Sinha said he was told by people associated with multiplex chains that the process is so long that instant numbers can never be out. The filmmaker said this “misinformation” is spread by “jokers” who then claim to a judge a film by its box office.

“In our times, not too long back, you would watch a film, say if it is good or not. Do you know how much was the lifetime collection of Mera Naam Joker, the Friday of Sholay? No, it is irrelevant. Today it has become so convoluted because there are parasites feeding off it, who can’t create anything of their own. These are people, who at a small-town, would sit at a paan-shop and bit*h about everything. They believe they know more.

“Trust me, please call PVR, ask them do they release a number every night or not. They don’t! No chain releases a number every night. Every night religiously, some people quote PVR, Inox, as if those numbers have been officially released. I actually called these guys once and asked have you released a number? They said no sir how can we, we keep getting the numbers by the next day. These numbers are circulated over WhatsApp, then some jokers make a show about how good or bad the film is,” he added.

Directed by Sudhir Mishra and produced by Sinha and Bhushan Kumar under their respective banners Benaras Media Works and T-Series Films, Afwaah stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bhumi Pednekar and Sumeet Vyas. The film is scheduled to release on May 5.