Critically and commercially acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur who is known for creating cult classics like Mr India, Bandit Queen and Elizabeth has had an illustrious career spanning over four decades.
He debuted in the Indian film industry with the film Masoom in 1983, starring Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi in the titular roles and a young Jugal Hansraj and Urmila Matondkar in children’s roles. Kapur went on to win several accolades for his film that year including The Filmfare awards for Best Director and Best Film (Critic’s Choice)
The director took to X (formerly Twitter) recently to post a throwback picture from the film’s set and shared an anecdote about how Masoom opened to empty halls when it first released in theatres and how it’s slow but sure journey as an apparent sleeper hit due led to it’s ‘cult classic’ status – demonstrating the power of cinema.
When Masoom was released in theatres…
Kapur posted a picture from a day of shooting Masoom with its actors in full costume posing alongside him, with smiles on everyone’s faces. He then went on to tell the story of how the movie seemed like a flop initially due to empty halls on the first day, with the director himself testifying to it.
“On the first day of release, I went to the main theatre … and there were only two people in the whole cinema hall.. and one of them was me! Those days ‘black marketing’ of cinema tickets was really prevalent .. young men, or even gangs, would bulk buy cinema tickets and then sell them at higher prices on the day of the show.. of course if the hall was full…Except the first show on the first day for Masoom, the hall was completely empty!” he wrote.
See the post here:
He then recalled that after leaving the theatre he had been accosted by several young men belonging to these black marketing gangs who had been angry that his film had lost them money once they discovered that he was the director. However, the anger soon turned to sympathy when they observed that Kapur looked crestfallen with one marketeer even advising him to stop making ‘article’ films which Kapur understood to mean artistic later on.
“Sir .. the problem is you’ve made an ‘article’ film’ .. if you want a career , don’t do that,” Kapur recalled, pondering on the marketeer’s words. “Don’t ever make an artistic film this young black marketeer was trying to warn me…” he then added.
A movie miracle for the ages
The director further wrote that the movie halls remained deserted through the weekend and going into the week day – at that point distributors had given up on the film as well; they had stopped supporting it as it was too expensive to keep showing the film to empty halls. The director recalled feeling disheartened and even considered giving up filmmaking.
“I remember the feeling that day… when they told me they had decided to give up trying to hold the theatres .. I walked the streets of Mumbai and thought about what I was going to do next in my life, for making films was certainly no longer an option,” he said.
However, something strange happened on the Thursday of the very week when all seemed lost. The film’s luck -and by turn, the director’s – seemingly flipped overnight. Cinema halls started filling up rapidly with friends even reaching out to Kapur personally for tickets as high demand made it impossible to obtain them. Suddenly, distributors were scrambling to get the film back up on screens and his ‘article’ film was being declared a hit.
“What happened that weekend ? People say in retrospect it was ‘Word of mouth’…but how could it be, when hardly anyone saw the film ?” The director wondered.
The film’s revival was a movie miracle and it eventually went on to win the following categories at the Filmfare awards that year: Best Film (Critics), Best Director, Best Actor, Best Music Director, Best Lyricist and Best Female Playback Singer. Today, Masoom has attained a classic status in the halls of Indian cinema greats and is widely regarded as one of the greatest emotional dramas in the industry.