Even though Rahul Bose's Poorna was listed among the top films to watch in 2017, neither did the critically acclaimed film do well at the box office nor was it nominated for any awards. The film's director says that there are many other films that made it to award nominations which had much less box-office collection than Poorna. “It means that awards are not dependent on box-office collections. There are other factors involved and I accept that. At the end of the day, films are such a subjective medium, no one know who will like which film. I am not disappointed. My job is to make a good film. I don't care if the film makes it to particular nomination list but if it does, I will be happy.”
But the film could have done better if it would have released in more screens but Rahul says that it was his decision to release the film in limited screens. “No one forced me because I was the producer. I could have doubled the screens but I didn't do that because it was best for the film.”
Poorna is set to make it's TV premiere today (January 26) at 11am on &pictures. Rahul shares that the TV premiere is an opportunity for the film to reach audiences in other cities and towns. “The reality of cinema exhibition is that unless you get guaranteed returns from a particular city or town, we do not release a film there. So there are many small places where the film did not release. In fact our major returns came from seven major cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Delhi, Ahmadabad,” says Rahul.
The film is about Poorna (played by Aditi Inamdar), a young tribal girl from Telangana who barely gets to enjoy one meal a day. The story chronicles her journey as she strives to achieve her dream of summiting the highest peak in the world, Mt. Everest.
But TV premiere of Poorna is clashing with that of Rohit Shetty's multi-starrer Golmaal Again, which could have been avoided.
Rahul says that there is nothing to worry as the channel will screen the film on various other occasions as well.
The actor-directors says that there are several things that he learned while making the film. “In terms of box-office, it's very clear that India is not interested in mainstream films with no big star because Poorna is a completely mainstream film. It work in small cities because they are not interested. Poorna was a litmus test for Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities and it completely failed. People will watch the film on television but not go to the theatre, which is really sad,” he says adding that he will tell every filmmaker not to bother making mainstream films for Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities without a known star. But he maintains that his biggest learning as a filmmaker was the post-production part. “There was so much of post-production and CG work that I have become an expert in CG. The entire format was in film and now it has become completely digital, so I got to learn about that,” he says before signing off.
ST Reader Service:
Catch Poorna today (January 26) at 11am on &pictures