1920 London finally ready for release

After two years, the third installment of the hit horror franchise, '1920 London,' is finally ready to come out of cold storage.Several false starts later, the film, planned as a quickie, is ready for an unveiling in April. And no one could be happier than Nitin Bhatkar, former CFO and now one of the directors of ASA which was co-producing the film along with Reliance Entertainment. He's hoping that this time the company he heads will be given due credit. A lot has changed in the three years since the film was launched with former ASA directors Anju Bishnoi and Vikram Bhatt resigning and Phantom Films joining hands with Reliance which has partly financed the film. Bishnoi also got a subsidy from the UK government as almost the entire film is shot in London.

"We were on track till it went over-budget and shooting came to a halt. There was just four days of work remaining and then the post-production, but ASA which was facing a cash crunch with no income or recovery on its films, didn't have the money to complete it," admits Nitin. He adds that several other projects were also affected, including 'Bhaag Johnny,' 'Creature 3D' and 'Hate Story 2'. The 'Hate Story' sequel was eventually completed and released by T-Series, which had invested in it, without giving ASA credit. In the case of '1920 London,' even though Phantom and Reliance have completed the film, Nitin is hoping for credit.

"The money from the UK subsidy went directly to the ASA corporate account and was invested in the film. It would be a case of fraud to not acknowledge our contribution this time around," he points out, admitting that since the last three years he has been trying to re-establish contact with the film industry but has not been getting the opportunities. "The company is still alive but we have not been kept in the loop on '1920 London'. I'm happy to know it will finally see the light of the day and hope we will get a mention in the credits."

Nitin's partners would not be drawn into a discussion on the subject. All that the Phantom spokesperson would say was, "'1920 London' is complete and has shaped up very well. The film releases on April 22 as planned."

However, speaking to Mirror from Romania where he is filming 'Raaz Reboot,' Vikram Bhatt points out that the Bishnoi brothers, Ajay and Anju, who ran ASA, took funds from T-Series but did not finish the three films they had committed to. "Since I was a director at the time, I completed 'Creature 3D,' 'Bhaag Johnny' and 'Hate Story 2' with my personal funds because of the goodwill I share with T-Series, them chipping in. After that there was no chance of ASA getting any credit."

The same scenario was repeated with '1920 London' after it went over-budget. "ASA owns large amounts of money in the market so if Phantom gives them credit, there will be so many law suits they will never be able to release it. But at the same time, if they don't get credit, the UK government would have given subsidy to a company that is not involved with the release. I don't know how it works legally but this is the situation as I understood it last. Ajay Bishnoi is the only person with the answers," adds Vikram.

The period horror drama features Meera Chopra who claims to be Priyanka Chopra's distant cousin, Sharman Joshi as an exorcist from Rajasthan who goes to the Queen's City to help a friend and spirited encounters in plenty. But right now it's the question of credits that is haunting its makers.