When Ajay Devgn’s Well Made Romantic Directorial Debut With Wife Kajol Flopped At The Box Office

This year, Ajay Devgn delivered his biggest blockbuster ever in the form of Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, which is incidentally also his 100th film as a leading man. While as an actor he has been delivering hits, superhits and blockbusters at will, his debut as a director wasn’t really as awesome.

On this day today, back in 2008, he had lived his passion of turning into a director with U Me aur Hum. A heartwarming romantic drama, the film was also special since real life couple Ajay Devgn and Kajol were coming together on screen all over again and that too in a home production. The film managed to fetch quite some attention for itself on its announcement. However, many were surprised that Ajay Devgn was kick-starting his direction career with a romantic film, when most of the successes delivered by him over the years were action entertainers.

Nonetheless, the film got made in a lavish way with majority of the shooting happening on a cruise due to its setting. Expectedly, it saw good promotion, marketing and release for itself. However, the opening was just about average as audiences only at key multiplexes stepped in to watch the film, as a result of which the first day number just about went past the 2 crores mark. There were some jumps over the weekend to result in around 8 crores coming in by Sunday night. Though elite liked the film, it wasn’t enough as the lifetime crossed just 20 crores.

For a film that was made at a budget of over 25 crores, U Me aur Hum couldn’t recover its costs. Inspired by the likes of Hollywood flicks like The Notebook and 50 First Dates, it was about Ajay Devgn taking care of his wife Kajol for 25 years due to latter suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Though the film did have several heartwarming moments and melodic songs as well, it was way too classy for the masses due to its subtle romance and at times depressing moments as well. For those looking at a quintessential Ajay Devgn-Kajol romance, there wasn’t much.

Eight years later Ajay went the action way with Shivaay [2016] and the film boasted of some never-seen-before action sequences. Released on Diwali, the film went on to enter the 100 Crore Club.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

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