Ronit Roy defends ‘labour of love’ Shamshera, says film’s box office failure ‘isn’t something you can digest easily’
Actor Ronit Roy spoke warmly about his recent film Shamshera, which bombed at the box office. The actor said that he felt bad for the entire team because when he thinks about the film, he thinks about the ‘blood and sweat’ that director Karan Malhotra poured into it. Ronit followed Shamshera up with an appearance in the film Liger, which also bombed.
In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, Ronit Roy spoke highly about the filmmaker, and said that he is disappointed that Shamshera didn’t connect with audiences, but added that nobody really knows why films work or don’t.
Asked about the back-to-back high-profile box office failures, he said, “I know for a fact how much of hard work has gone into Shamshera, starting from Yash Raj’s unit, to Karan Malhotra, to all the actors. There weren’t just four or five actors. The crowd had about a 100 actors. The way it was shot, the dust, the sun, the smoke… It was not easy to shoot that film, and the precision with which Karan shot it… His blood and sweat went into that film.”
He added, “I wouldn’t say I feel bad, but it’s not something that you can digest so easily. And it’s years of blood and sweat. I’m not the only person working hard; 300 people worked hard for it. It doesn’t feel nice when a film tanks like that. It’s a labour of love.”
Shamshera is a period action film starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt and Vaani Kapoor. Produced on a hefty reported budget of Rs 150 crore, the film managed less than Rs 65 crore globally. The revenue for Liger has been disputed. While Bollywood Hungama suggests that the Hindi version of film made only Rs 20 crore against a reported budget of Rs 125 crore, Dharma Productions said that the film made Rs 33 crore globally (across all versions) on its first day of release.
After Shamshera bombed, Karan Malhotra stood it in a passionate note shared on Instagram. He thanked the team for the hard work, and said that he is proud of the film that they made.
