Boman Irani on Jayeshbhai Jordaar’s poor box office performance: ‘Was it the marketing, I don’t know’

Boman Irani was seen with Ranveer Singh in Jayeshbhai Jordaar, which released on May 13. The film did not perform well at the box office, earning only ₹12 crore in its first weekend. It collected ₹3 crore across India on its first day. In a new interview, Boman said he was puzzled by the film’s failure at the box office. He added that the OTT release of Jayeshbhai Jordaar turned out to be good for the film, as the response from the audience was quite positive. Read more: Ranveer Singh goes loud once again in a clumsy mashup of multiple issues in Jayeshbhai Jordaar

Boman said the film industry was going through a phase of ‘flux’. He said Jayeshbhai Jordaar, which did not work theatrically, but was well-received by viewers post its OTT release, was an example of how ‘we are in a state of flux’.

Speaking about the film, Boman told PTI, “It should’ve done better numbers, I don’t see why it didn’t. There’s a lot that goes in which we don’t understand. The film is now on OTT and people are saying, ‘Hey this is a nice movie why didn’t it (work)’. Now what can I say… Everything doesn’t have a tangible answer. Was it the marketing, was it the… I don’t know. William Goldman (American screenwriter) once famously said, ‘Nobody knows anything’. If we knew, why isn’t every film a superhit?”

Jayeshbhai Jordaar featured Boman as Ranveer’s father, Pruthvish Patel, a family patriarch, who endorses female foeticide. It was directed by debutant Divyang Thakkar and produced by Yash Raj Films.

When asked about the trend of Hindi films not performing well at the box office, Boman said ‘everything happens in waves’. He said even Hollywood has repeatedly seen rough patches, but cinema is here to stay.

“If at all something is going wrong, people will learn from their mistakes because a lot of money is involved, a lot of reputation, desire to get things right is involved. We learn from our mistakes and move on. Even in Hollywood this happened when the TV came in. People said they won’t go to the cinemas. So the makers decided to make cinemas big and made Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and people returned… People love cinema, the stars, the thrills, the larger than life feel. It’s a wave, we will see this through,” Boman said.

The actor, who has been working in the film industry for over two decades, said backing a movie was a gamble. He said he respects producers, who continue to believe and invest in films even if the times are not good. Boman’s OTT debut is titled Masoom. The psychological thriller will stream on Disney+ Hotstar from June 17.

(With PTI inputs)