Anup Jalota planned to have a private screening of Ketan Mehta's Rang Rasiya. A wrong assumption ensured it never happened
Anup Jalota planned to have a private screening of Ketan Mehta's Rang Rasiya. A wrong assumption ensured it never happened
It was meant to be a screening of the as-yet unreleased Rang Rasiya at the Ravindra Natya Mandir, Prabhadevi on Sunday evening. Instead, singer Anup Jalota and his guests had to be content with simply downing snacks and tea and going home because of an oversight.
Special screeningSays the bhajan maestro, "My wife, Medha was keen to watch Rang Rasiya. So I thought I would hold a special screening after the film's director [and Jalota's good friend] Ketan Mehta agreed. We invited our friends - singer Ila Arun, artist Naina Kanodia, Shubha Gokhale ufffd to watch the film with us. I decided on Ravindra Natya Mandir because I had held a special trial show of my film, Maalik Ek based on Sai Baba, at the same venue a month earlier. I liked their special auditorium on the third floor."
His guests congregated at the venue at 7 pm ("nearly 50 of them," says Anup) and were waiting for nearly an hour. At 8 pm, Ravindra Natya Mandir officials apologized profusely saying they did not have projection facilities and so, the screening could not be held. Says Anup, "They did not have a projectionist. Though I had booked the venue earlier, they did not bother to read the booking carefully. They thought it was a concert of mine and not a film screening, so they had not made any screening arrangements. Instead of Rang Rasiya, we had chai and samosas, vadas and went home."
AssumptionsA Ravindra Natya rep confirmed the goof-up. "We automatically assumed it was for a concert when we saw the name Anup Jalota, though it was mentioned in the booking that it was a film screening. We should have scrutinised the letter along with the booking form better. It was a bungle. We apologize to Anup and his guests."
One of the guests added, "I was looking forward to seeing this film. More than that though, my heart went out to Anup and Medha. They are such nice people, they should have been spared the embarrassment."
