How would you feel if the film you produced, directed and co-wrote ran for just one week and recorded pathetic collections in almost every cinema it was released in? Sad? Terrible? Miserable?
Well, Amit Agarwal, the debut-making producer-director of Fastey Fasaatey also felt all these emotions and more when his maiden film, which was also co-written by him, released on 21st June, 2019, the same day as blockbuster Kabir Singh opened. It drew very poor public response, prompting exhibitors to discontinue the film from the 152 cinemas it was released in all over India, after runs varying from a day to seven days. It had also opened in the US and Mauritius back in June last year, but the results were no better than in India. Agarwal was convinced that he had made a fairly good film but he accepted that the public had rejected it. After almost about nine months came the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Cinemas across the country and the world shut down. When cinemas reopened in India in October, Amit Agarwal decided to give his film another shot. On November 27, 2020, he mustered courage and released it in some stations of Maharashtra, C.P. Berar and Nizam circuits. Spurred on by the collections which were better than pathetic, Agarwal released it in West Bengal circuit thru exhibitor-distributor Satadeep Saha, a week later, on December 4. Incidentally, Saha was one of the very few persons who had sent a share to Agarwal for the comedy film when it was first released in June 2019.
It drew very poor public response, prompting exhibitors to discontinue the film from the 152 cinemas it was released in all over India,
after runs varying from
a day to seven days.
To Agarwal’s surprise, the film managed to collect fairly well in the first week at the 20 cinemas in which Saha released it on December 4. It netted Rs. 30,679 on the first day, Rs. 39,797 on the second day, and Rs. 37,180 on day 3. Its collections in the weekdays were: Monday Rs. 35,578 (more than Friday), Tuesday Rs. 13,370 (adversely affected due to Bharat bandh in support of the farmers’ agitation), Wednesday Rs. 34,074 (more than Friday), Thursday Rs. 26,822. In other words, the first week closed at Rs. 2,17,500 (from 20 cinemas).
Looking to the response in West Bengal, distributors and exhibitors of other circuits started showing interest in the film. In this way, it opened on 11th December in Delhi-U.P., East Punjab and Mysore. The chain reaction continued and the film is due to be released next week in Gujarat, Saurashtra, Bihar, Assam, C.P. Berar, C.I., Nizam and Andhra. Leading distributor Sanjay Chhattar will release it in C.P. Berar and C.I. Cinemas are still closed in Rajasthan, otherwise Chhattar would’ve also planned its release in Rajasthan circuit on 18th December. On 25th December, Amit Agarwal plans to release the film in Fiji, Singapore and South Africa.
The chain reaction continued and the film is due to be released next week in Gujarat, Saurashtra, Bihar, Assam, C.P. Berar, C.I., Nizam and Andhra.
Isn’t it creditable for a film which had bombed, to be revived after 17 months in one territory after another? As Agarwal puts it: “The film has been made by the equity participation of actors, technicians and equipment suppliers, and thanks to the financial and emotional support of family and friends. Manmohan Shetty Sir and Sunir Kheterpal were the backbone of this film. Ganesh Jain ji and Venus later joined as the world rights controllers.”
Incidentally, N. Chandra’s son, Nachiket Narvekar (seated in the poster above), plays an important role — that of the hero’s (Arpit Chaudhary) friend — in the comedy film.