Saif on his budget

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desigal90

@desigal90

Trailblazer

+ 5

Posted: 11 years ago

"One of the things you learn as an adult is how to live within a budget. You earn a certain amount, I earn a certain amount, Prince Charles earns a certain amount...everyone has a different budget to work with. You have to be smart about it. You must understand how much your film's market is. If its first day is likely to make eight crores, then it should not cost more than 10-12 crores to make. It can be done. With this film, for instance, I decided that I'll charge this much, shoot for this number of days, finish filming with this much expenditure, stay at The Imperial, have this little premiere, call the press...this is the universe I'm working within, and at the end of it the investor should make money. It's a stupid move to make a 70 crore film if it opens at this much. That's an error in pricing somewhere and we've all done that in an attempt to make a good film. But that is precisely the art," he quips.

Playing safe

Where top-wrung A-listers like SRK and Salman have been inclined towards doing commercially viable cinema verging on eternal sameness, Saif points out that not being in the same league as them gives him an advantage. He explains, "I think with the really big stars a sort of Tom Cruise trap comes into play. They're big and therefore need to do certain things to live up to that stature. Also, the audience really does have a choice here. I think most people would actually be disappointed if they had to watch Shah Rukh or Salman in a movie like The Lunchbox. But they'll be able to see me in a movie like that. They already have, in fact. I'll do a Go Goa Gone or an Omkara and it is in my nature to do a Being Cyrus. Even Happy Ending is a good start and the films I'm looking at doing now are all going to be good films, even if they don't make it to the hundred crore club. I want to be part of a film that is a commercial success as well as good cinema."