This film had empty theatres in first week, later saw housefull shows, became superhit, won 5 Filmfare Awards, marked debut of...

Starring Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi in the lead roles, the 1983 drama Masoom marked the directorial debut of Shekhar Kapur. The film also had Tanuja and Supriya Pathak making special appearances, and Urmila Matondkar and Jugal Hansraj as child actors. Adapted from the 1980 Erich Segal novel Man, Woman and Child; Masoom had its screenplay, dialogues and lyrics penned by Gulzar and music composed by RD Burman. Before its release, the exhibitors loved the film but nobody came to the theatres in the first week. 

In his recent post on Instagram, Shekhar recalled how his own and his debut film's fate changed overnight. He also shared how the black marketeers called it an "article" film, misspellingly the word artistic. Sharing how he was shocked seeing only two people in the theatre on Masoom's first day first show, the Mr India director wrote, "I walked into the theatre and there were only two people in there, and one was me! The vast emptiness hit me like an avalanche. This was the end of my career as a filmmaker which hadn’t actually started, for Masoom was my first film. Unfortunately an ‘Article’ film as the black marketeers labelled it. That was the Friday of the release. All theatres went empty. As they were on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday."

Kapur added that after witnessing the initial response to his first film, he thought of doing something else for a living. However, as the distributors were thinking of pulling the movie out of the cinema halls, things changed for the better. "On Wednesday the distributor of the film called me and said they had no choice but to pull the film from the theatres, which they did from the ones where they could find another film to replace Masoom. On Thursday I got a call from them saying that people had started to come in. On Friday the houses were full. On Saturday tickets were being sold in black by those that called Masoom an 'Article' film. And the scramble to find more theatres began and Masoom was declared a hit", the filmmaker further wrote.

The director also revealed that he is now making Masoom - The Next Generation, the sequel to his 1983 hit film as he wondered what exactly happened on that Thursday that changed his and his film Masoom's fate overnight. "What happened on Thursday? I don’t know and have always wondered. What if they didn’t come on Thursday? The distributors would have given up the other theatre too and Masoom would not have been a film anyone saw. Now, all those years later as I prepare to take Masoom - The Next Generation into production, the word 'Article film' still haunts me and what happened on Thursday? Did my (or the film’s) destiny just change overnight?", Shekhar concluded.

 

 

 

 

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Apart from becoming a superhit, Masoom also went on to win five Filmfare Awards for Best Film (Critics), Best Actor to Naseeruddin Shah, Best Music Director to RD Burman, Best Lyricist to Gulzar for Tujhse Naraaz Nahin, and Best Female Playback Singer to Aarti Mukherjee for Do Naina Ek Kahani.

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