‘A Gentleman’ made on a tight budget, say makers

With less than a day to go for the theatrical release of ‘A Gentleman’, it’s the tight budget that the film has been made on, which gives it a chance of recovering its investment – during what has been a tough period for the film industry.

Starring Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandes in the lead, the film has been made on a budget of approximately 50 crore, with 30 crore already recovered from non-theatrical revenue (satellite, music, digital).

“Right from the day we launched the trailer of A Gentleman, the anticipation for this film is only going up. The movie has shaped up very well and the film is in a very good place given the controlled cost of production and fantastic satellite and music rights values” Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios, said in a statement.

“We are confident that the film will be loved by audiences especially the youth, and as a studio, we are thrilled with our home grew slate post Neerja, Dhoni and Jolly LLB2” he added.

The director-duo of the film, Raj and DK, say ‘A Gentleman’ is an action film which has been made on a ‘rom-com budget’ (i.e lower than most other action films).

“The game is different here. We have made an action film in a budget of a rom-com and that is possible if you budget your film smartly. In this film, we did not have a lavish budget but we tried to find ways to recover money as soon as possible” Raj said.

“We worked really hard to recompose all the action sequences. There was no re-shoot of any scene and we tried to be as economical as possible, so that on paper it can look profitable. That way, the creative approach changes. But we do not feel the pressure of making it to the Rs 100 crore club” he added.

Talking about the fascination around box office numbers for movie-goers, Raj said people now decide where a film has been liked or not based on its earnings at the box office.

“Earlier, we used to take cabs and roam around the city of Hyderabad where, whenever I asked the cab driver if a film is good, his response used to be, ‘No, that film didn’t earn money… That’s a flop’ or ‘This is super hit, bahut paisa kamaya (it made a lot of money).. So, what we realised is that people count a film as a hit or flop based on its earnings.” Raj said.

DK was quick to add “We see no reason to take pressure on that; people should love our film, not its business”

The director-duo have previously directed unusual films like ‘Go Goa Gone’, ’99’ and ‘Shor in the City’. Some of their films have received critical acclaim, while box office success awaits. Will ‘A Gentleman’ be their big film?

The film releases in theatres tomorrow.