'I don’t care what the industry says'

As the stand-off between Bollywood producers and multiplex owners continues, Shivajee Chandrabhushan, director and producer of the acclaimed movie Frozen, has decided to go ahead and release the movie in multiplexes on May 8.
Not only this, Frozen which is a black and white film starring Danny Dengzongpa, will see a staggered release ��� starting in Mumbai and covering eight cities in the first phase, including Bangalore. ���I���m most concerned about the show timings. The multiplex owners have not only cooperated with me, but also promised me the show timings I wanted. I���ve also agreed to the older model of revenue sharing, which is based on the performance-linked model,��� says Shivajee.
Is he going against the industry and causing displeasure among certain groups in it? ���The film is releasing in India almost after a year-and-a-half. The same industry refused to even touch it earlier, saying it wasn���t a typical Bollywood film. Now it doesn���t matter what they say. I just want the audience to see the movie and decide for themselves,��� he asserts.
The director, however, is not using the stand-off as an opportunity to get more movie-goers to watch his film. ���I had already planned to release it at around this time as no other big releases were planned ��� even before the stand-off,��� says Shivajee.
Discussing the staggered release format, Shivajee says, ���I never wanted Frozen to be an all-India release and we will start from Mumbai and take it to other cities. Gradually, we will go the digital way and are already in talks with UFO, Scrabble and Qube.��� The film has travelled to nearly 30 international film festivals and some portions, such as the army convoy scenes, were shot on the way to Khardungla, which is the highest motorable pass of the world.