Striker director feels Studio 18 sabotaged his film

Yanked off

The Other Side

Studio 18's Head of Marketing Preeti Shahani says, "Chandan Arora is making a very serious allegation. Why would we as the worldwide distributors of the film try to pull out our own film if it was doing well in even one centre? Has Chandan Arora seen the collections of Striker? Can he bring forward even one exhibitor who says we've asked the film to be removed?" Adds Aman Gill , Studio 18's head of distribution, "Chandan Arora's behaviour all through the marketing and promotion of Striker has been questionable. Far from us not taking his calls, it was Chandan who stopped taking our calls. Striker opened to an average of 5-10 percent collections which dipped to 2 percent post-weekend. Still we never asked any exhibitor to remove the film. As for putting the film on YouTube, yes Studio 18 took that decision. By putting the film on the net for international audiences, we've automatically saved a lot of money on theatre rentals."

Chandan alleges Studio 18 instructed exhibitors all over the country to simply remove the prints regardless of how the film was performing, "The exhibitor in Hyderabad personally told me the film was doing well there. Prints of Striker were yanked off there as well."

The director continues, "I've been trying to get in touch with Preeti Shahani (Marketing) and Aman Gill (Distribution) at Studio 18. They stopped taking my calls a month before the film's release.

After my film was taken off, I tried getting in touch with them again. There has been no response" He alleges that even the decision to download the film on U-tube was taken unilaterally by Studio 18. "It was entirely their decision."

Adds the film's leading man Siddharth, "I'm deeply hurt. I don't know what their (Studio 18) intent was. Even the theatres in Chennai and Hyderabad (his base) where the film was doing very well have removed it after the first week.

Nobody at Studio 18 is reachable on phone. I heard their top brass resigned before the film released. It's a beautiful film. Over half a million people have watched it on YouTube.

Why is the film not playing? It's sad. Some of my films have run for a year in Andhra Pradesh. A one-week run is hard to accept. I hope people see the film eventually, maybe on TV where badly-marketed gems often end up."

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!