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Fortune favours the brave. So while eight top Bollywood producers refused to get on board Samir Karnik’s Yamla Pagla Deewana, starring the Deols, veteran producer Nitin Manmohan’s stepping in at the last moment (two days before the film went before the cameras) has proved highly profitable.
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While the total budget (production, promotion and print) of Yamla Pagla Deewana is around Rs. 24 crore, Nitin Manmohan has already raked in at least Rs. 41 crore through the sale of the film’s theatrical and satellite rights. After the release of the film’s first trailer, the common public and the trade went into a tizzy of excitement. Advance booking in single screen theatres, starting Monday, has also been good. Let’s take a look at the breakdown of the film’s economics so far:
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The producers have garnered Rs. 25 crore from the sale of theatrical rights for different territories (except Bombay, where one of the producers, Nitin Manmohan, is distributing the film himself). Nitin Manmohan and the other producers have sold off the film’s satellite rights for Rs. 16 crore approx. As a result, the producer has already booked a profit of Rs. 17 crore, even before the film has hit the theatres!
But what really happened? Why was a project – that has proved profitable to the producer even before the film’s release – rejected by many others? Thus goes the story…
When a broker approached several top film producers and production houses with Samir Karnik’s story of Yamla Pagla Deewana and the Deols finalised as the film’s lead players, the producers looked down upon the project as an unviable one. They argued with the broker that producing a film with the Deols – Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby – in it was a downright mistake. One producer even said to the broker, “Don’t take this project (Yamla Pagla Deewana) to any other producer. This film can kill him.” After receiving such negative response from producers, including Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Limited, Babloo Pachisia, Bharat Shah, Balaji Motion Pictures, UTV Motion Pictures, Gordhan Tanwani, Shemaroo and Smita Thackeray, the crestfallen broker decided to call up Nitin Manmohan, producer of such movies as Insaaf, Bol Radha Bol and more than 20 others.
Interestingly, when the broker called up Nitin Manmohan, the latter hung up on him. Relentless, the broker kept calling him continuously for almost half an hour more but the latter’s phone was switched off. The broker, convinced that Nitin Manmohan couldn’t behave in such a manner, kept calling back. Finally, it was Nitin Manmohan who called him back after two hours, and explained that he was entering the Chief Minister’s office when the broker had called and so he couldn’t talk then. Relieved, the broker pitched to him Samir Karnik’s story and proposal. Immediately, Nitin Manmohan agreed to produce the film, his first after a gap of several years. Two days later, the film’s unit had left for shooting in Patiala. The rest, as they say, is history.
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