Aubhav Sinha’s Cash has had a very hard time getting to the silver screen. There have been battles raging behind the scenes and in the courts. Recently it was reported that the title Cash had to be changed to Anubhav Sinha’s Cash because of these problems. Well now it is back to being titled Cash but the opening weekend has had to be pushed back until August 3rd, one week after it was suppose to premiere.
The movie starring Ajay Deagan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Suniel Shetty, Dia Mizra, Esha Deol and Shamita Shetty has been involved in a battle between Anish Ranjan and Sohail Maklai over who had the rights to the film. The dispute has gotten so bad, that they have had to go to the courts to decide.
According to Ranjan and Sinha the reason the film had to be delayed was because Maklai did not provide the court with the necessary papers that the film needs to submit to the censor board. The censor board has passed the film with a U/A and zero cuts, all they were waiting for were the documents needed to issue the certificate. Maklai was instructed to do so by the court but waited until the last minute and so the movie has to wait a week. Ranjan also said that Makali tried to get extort money from them before he would hand over that papers but that they did not cave into his demands. He is furious and adds, “We would rather have the film come a week late and fight it out in the court rather than take something like this lying down.”
They are sure that they will be able to release next week and have decided to increase the number of prints to make sure they make up for some of the losses that they incurred by the delay. “We don’t have a choice but to increase the prints. Thankfully the buzz around the movie is quite strong and hence we are confident that the film would open quite well. Earlier we had 700-800 prints worldwide. Now we will come up with an even higher number. I am actually genuinely feeling sorry for ‘Gandhi My Father’ (another film that comes on 3rd August). I wanted that film to work and I hope it will. The only factor is that earlier it too was the sole major release of the week but now it would have ‘Cash’ for competition,” said Ranjan.
Sinha is upset and sad that all this has happened especially the fact that someone he was working with closely on the movie he now has to face in court. However, he is confident that the film will still do well even with the delayed release. “It is going to be a huge release. I have been told by distributors that they are anticipating a much bigger and better response than ‘Dus’. Also the economics have changed in last two years and the scale and canvas of ‘Cash’ is such that it should rake in good moolah,” said Sinha.
Adding finally that he will look at this delay as a blessing in disguise and will use the time to promote the film so that everyone is talking about it and are eagerly anticipating its release!
It will be interesting to hear Maklai’s side of this story. We will report any new developments, so watch this space for more news! And if you were rushing off to see Cash tonight you will have to wait for movie night next Friday!
