Feedback on Black Friday from LA
Hi Folks,
Despite all the hoopla and the awaaz in this group about Anuraag and Black Friday, I was an objectively indifferent supporter. Reason being I did not think too much and still don’t about his JUNG and PAISA VASOOL. But I think with Black Friday, his directorial debut, the LA audience seemed to have given a strong thumbs up. In fact the response was so positive that the distributor (ADLABS) did not charge anything since he reasoned this is all the grass roots marketing that he wants and way more effective than those pea brained PR agencies and film magazines.
Here is the feedback from the horse’s mouth –
Surprisingly…we had a decent turn out.
Sunny decided to let everyone have free admission. I don’t know why he chose not to charge…
Anyhow, it was a great film and I’m getting emails and calls TODAY asking more about it!! hahah…told them they missed the boat for the screening but could catch it in theatres over the weekend at Naz 8.
Manoj, who organizes the films at Fallbrook also agreed the timing was a slight hindrance. He said, it could have been played at 8:30 – that was do-able.
Anyhow, live and learn.
People asked why SAAFA doesn’t do more screenings and how come more panel discussions- Ritu Mahindru
&
everyone enjoyed the movie. i thought it was very well made.
4 stars on Showbiz India!!! (very rare)— Also Ritu
&
Ritu/Vivek:
Thanks for coordinating the event yesterday. My husband LOVED the movie!
I (personally) thought the acting was outstanding but some of the scenes were long and drawn out. An intense must-see film, definitely not a CHICK FLICK.
Take care… ———
Nishtha (an attendee)—————————————————————————
Await feedback on the Bay Area (SF) screening tonite and perhaps if I am up for it, a review too. Seem’s to me that Anuraag has hit paydirt with this one. Let’s wait and watch. Initial list of RSVP’s for the Bay Area have been outstanding, given that my confidence level amongst desis here is at an all time low, since it is primarily a bedroom community and excuses like “I have kids at home,” “have to be at work tomorrow,” etc would have one believe that it is ONLY DESIS IN BAY AREA, who care about kids and home, of course basically it is a cover up for their lack of supporting culture, but this film seems to have preliminary caught their attention.Will be attending today to give a first hand “aankhon de ka haal”
Vivek “oh the travails of an audience reaction on a Friday” Kumar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Waiting for both Fridays – tomorrow and the movie
Vivek: Unrelated to the subject of the post, but I don’t really agree with the “lack of supporting culture” comment. I think it is more about the culture itself than one part of it that you mention. I don’t think any show like this will get the response it deserves if it is on a weekday night, be it from desis or from Americans . And I think that’s practical. Well unless the movie has a cult associated with it (or its main players). I think such movies will get exceptional support. For instance, in April 2005, I saw Rajinikant’s most recent release (Chandramukhi) on a Thursday night in a North Bergen theater, where they had it on simultaneously (staggered starts that is) at least three screens, each of which had just a handful of seats vacant. Even then, the crowd was just young working professionals some of whom had driven for hours from Philly (I myself drove from Delware, which is 3 hrs away) and elsewhere to be there. I don’t think it’s practical for families do this.
Additionally I am eagerly waiting for next Friday to see what magic Vidhu chopra-bachchan combination creates.