Chak De India promos too long say owners

Manoj Desai, owner of Gaiety Galaxy and Maratha Mandir says, "I had not received any direct intimation to withdraw it but I have already done so. In fact I'm going to speak to Yash Chopra and his distributor to withdraw this 10 minute promo," says Desai.

The ten minute promo shows SRK, who plays a hockey coach of a ladies hockey team, introducing his team one by one. Quite different from industry standards which normally last a minute or two, this promo shows the team member who are from all over India yelling 'Chak De' in various styles. And Desai feels this has not gone down very well with the normal cinema-going public.

"First of all we are seeing Shah Rukh in a very different role. On top of that we have women of which only few are good looking actresses while others aren't. Then at one point they show a Nepalese actress and obviously her dialect is different and then you have a Sardarni again. And I have seen that most of the time the public hoots when these women go Chak De in various voices," says Desai.

Neither Jaideep Sahni, the writer, nor Shimit Amin, the director, was ready to speak on the topic. "We have a non disclosure clause with Yash Raj. So I can't comment on anything related to the movie. We have strict instructions from the banner to not discuss anything related to the movie till the official promotions for the movie begin," says Sahni.

"I know its SRK and he doesn't really need a promo. But this should be a teaser and not a full fledged ten minute video. I mean when we are showing a full length movie like a Sivaji which is already 3 hours and 8 minutes and then I have to add in another 10 minutes for this promo its not going to work…. Even if it's Shah Rukh Khan," Manoj Desai says candidly.

This is the first time a Bollywood film's first promo has been shot like a ten minute preview as opposed to the standard one or two minute rushes. Chak De India is set for an August 10 release and is scheduled for a grand premiere in London on August 9th at Somerset House in England.

But with three consecutive flops at the box office to Aditya Chopra's personal life being splashed all over the front pages, things are definitely not looking good for the Yash Raj banner these days.