Thaindian News

By Subhash K. Jha
Mumbai, Jan 21 (IANS) Sudhir Mishra says the news of his unreleased film “Tera Kya Hoga Johnny” being available on the Internet came as a rude shock. The director, however, is confident that the unfinished version on the net won’t jeopardize the film’s prospects.

“After ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, the West is looking with much curiosity at the slum culture of Mumbai. I had no plans of doing an English version of ‘Tera Kya Hoga Johnny’. But everyone who saw it in New York suggested I do it. Every frame in my film has been shot in the slums, lanes and gullies of South Mumbai in Colaba,” Mishra told IANS.

He admits that he was shocked when he learnt that his film was leaked online.

“Suddenly the news of my film being downloaded has become bigger than the film itself. This, I must admit, comes as a rude reminder of what lies ahead for our fim industry. It’s not just piracy. The net is where we need to look for trouble sources now.

“When I finally heard about my film being on the net, I checked it out. This is not the full and final version of ‘Tera Kya Hoga Johnny’. It’s a very rough cut. I’d advise all netizens to avoid watching the illegal download because that’s not my film,” he said.

Mishra refuses to play the blame game with the film’s co-producer Tutu Sharma.

“All I’ll say is that the film did not get leaked out of my office. What has happened, must be avoided in the future. But we aren’t letting this go. Complaints have been filed in two police stations of Mumbai and with the Google authorities. This must not happen again,” he said.

“Tera Kya Hoga Johnny” is an episodic story of a street child called Johnny. Mishra got a child from the streets of Kolkata to play the lead and even unofficially adopted the boy who now lives with the director.

Earlier, Neil Nitin Mukesh, who features in one of the episodes, was blamed for delay in the film release. It was said the actor didn’t want the film to release because of his minuscule role.

“Now at least everyone should stop blaming me. It was said I delayed the film by refusing to dub for it. Arrey, the film was in sync sound, so there’s no question of not dubbing. I’m very proud of ‘Tera Kya Hoga Johnny,” said Neil.