Mirza: Ankush holds up a grim reality of the reducing theatres in Bengal

Ankush Hazra’s Mirza opened with a good response at Eid’s box office. However, it is slowly gaining momentum. The actor-turned-producer hosted a social media live to interact with his fans and to convey the box office report of Mirza. The film features Ankush, Oindrila Sen and Kaushik Ganguly in the lead.  

At the beginning, Ankush said that Mirza got a good response. People are thrilled in the halls and some of the shows were housefull. Ankush expressed his happiness about it. Then why is he sad? This is because of the situation of some of the single screens where people don't go to watch Bengali films. He said, “After a film’s release, it is easy to write terms like 'blockbuster', 'bumper response', or 'running successfully'. But facing reality and fighting it is an important task.”

What is the reality? Ankush said, “There were some single screens which I visited in 2014 or 2015...there was a different craze at that time. Now I get to know about those halls from online shows and ticket aggregators or other places. People stopped going there. I am not naming the halls. It might be due to the lack of maintenance or because many films did not do well. But the situation of 2014 or 2015 is no more. It is very sad. But the halls have not shut down, they are still running.”

Also read: Mirza review: Oindrila Sen sparkles in Ankush Hazra’s action drama that is a bit too long 

This is Ankush's debut as the producer. He shared this experience and said that the number of cinema halls was reduced from 800 to less than 200. In this situation, Ankush reminded us about the necessity of ultimate commercial films. He also swore that he would make Mirza 2. He went out of his budget to make Mirza. He does not know whether it will make a profit, but that will not stop the making of Mirza 2, said Ankush.