The Great Grand Masti team looked sad and beaten at a recent promotional event. It’s not the bad reviews their film is getting that caused the tears, but the fact that the film’s censored version was leaked online just before its theatrical release.
Director Indra Kumar’s ‘spooky sex comedy’ has completely failed at the box office. While its main stars Urvashi Rautela, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani and Vivek Oberoi blame the rampant piracy for not letting the cash registers ring, we think it’s the film itself that didn’t manage to pull audiences into theatres. Urvashi, who plays a ghost in the film, was literally in tears about the film losing money to piracy.
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“I am a 22 year old young girl who’s trying to find a footing in the industry. When Udta Punjab was leaked online, I felt bad for the team. But never did I think that the same will happen to my film as well. There were people messaging me on social media saying they liked my performance because they had watched the film already before it could release in theatres. I didn’t know whether I should have smiled or cried.” said Urvashi Rautela at the press conference.
Grand Masti, the film’s predecessor in the franchise, is the only film to have entered the Rs 100 crore club. The makers of Great Grand Masti had similar expectations but the sex comedy could only manage to make less than Rs 2 crore on its opening day. Trade experts expect the film to suffer losses in the range of Rs 100 crore.
While piracy is no laughing matter for content creators, many also see it as a sign of success and popularity. Though director Indra Kumar and producer Ekta Kapoor don’t agree with that school of thought.
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