'Prince' will prevail despite IPL: Producer

Mumbai, March 19 (IANS) Producer Kumar Taurani is pulling out all stops for his next film, the Vivek Oberoi-starrer 'Prince'. He is releasing it simultaneously in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, not taking the IPL threat seriously.

'According to my report, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has not had the same craze this year as it had enjoyed in the last two seasons,' Taurani told IANS.

'The second thing is our film is coming in the middle of the series. What we calculated is that the IPL craze is at its peak in the first two weeks and during finals; so there will be a dull period in between when we will release our film.

'We started the promotional work much earlier. We showed the first promo during 'Ajab Prem...' so that we and the audience could connect with 'Prince' when it is released,' he said.

'I think we will cross 1,000-plus prints and we are releasing the film across the globe. We are going big time.

Directed by Kookie V. Gulati, the film is releasing April 9.

It narrates the story of a thief who wakes up one morning to realise that he has lost his memory and his life is at stake. Apart from Vivek, it also features Nandana Sen, Aruna Shields and Neeru Singh.

'We are dubbing the film in Tamil and Telugu and we are really going for a very good quality. We are working hard on it. Every thing, be it music or songs, we are releasing simultaneously and we are also promoting it well in those territories,' Kumar told IANS.

Talking about the title of the movie, he said: 'The name 'Prince' was not available with me, it was with Eagle Films. I repeatedly pleaded with them to give me the rights. My lead character's name is Prince and so I couldn't leave the title.

' 'It's Show Time' was my tag line and it's still there. So I released the first promo as 'Prince - It's Show Time'. Ultimately we were able to convince them and got the rights for this name,' said Kumar.

This is the first time that Kumar is associating his name with a film.

'See we are two brothers. We have one company, TIPS. Till 'Race' we used to make films together. Then we thought if we make two divisions, we will be able to concentrate on making more than one film at a time. Ramesh (Taurani) gave his name to 'Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani' and I made this one,' he said.

'I am new in the production business. Earlier, I used to handle music, marketing and promotion and distribution. I never did shooting. This time I was fully involved, right from the beginning. I did the distribution of 'Ajab...' worldwide. At end of the day, it's a TIPS film,' he added.

Asked if he was going to dub or subtitle the film for the overseas release, he said: 'See this is very much a Bollywood film filled with all the 'masalas'. This is an absolute entertainer and primarily targets Asians across the globe.'

Kumar's hands are full with projects for two years.

'There are two-three projects I am planning to work on. One among them will be again with Kookie Gulati, who is one of the directors of the company. I have signed Rajkumar Santoshi for another one. I plan to make these movies in the next two years,' he said.