The demise of 'The Warrior'

Asif Kapadia waited for this for four years. In the summer of 2001, the 27-year-old British-Indian filmmaker had the world at his feet. His small but epic style film ��� The Warrior, starring Irfan Khan, was being celebrated at film festivals from Edinburgh, to Venice and Toronto. And Miramax ��� the New York-based distribution and production company behind Oscar winning films like The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love, had bought the US rights for The Warrior.
It was Britain's official entry for the 2002 best foreign language film in the Oscar race.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected it, possibly on the grounds that it was in Hindi, and hence did not qualify as a British film. But the film won the BAFTA for the Best British Film of 2002. Four years later Miramax worked on a gradual release of the film. It opened two weeks ago in NY and LA and then on July 29 in other major US cities.
Kapadia, currently in the US working on the post production of his next film ��� a super-natural thriller with Sarah Michelle Geller and Sam Shepard, flew to New York to promote The Warrior. And Miramax hosted a lunch in his honour at Devi, the new Indian fusion restaurant.
"I am just a filmmaker," said the unassuming and charming Kapadia, sipping tea and nibbling on cocktail-size papadams. "It is a learning experience and I have learnt my lesson to be patient." He was talking about the delay in the release of The Warrior. As the story goes, Miramax was not sure how to release it. They believed that it should be dubbed in English to reach a wider audience.
That argument did not hold too well with The Warrior's main supporter in the UK ��� filmmaker Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), who strongly felt that Kapadia's fable-like film should be screened in Hindi ��� its original language. Eventually Minghella prevailed and Harvey Weinstein ��� the founder of Miramax, who is set to leave the company end-September ��� convinced the British filmmaker to lend his name to the film. The Warrior's ads state that the film is presented by Minghella.
Critics in the US have loved the film. On Friday, Michael Wilmington of The Chicago Tribune gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4 and referred to it as "a stunning debut film" and "violently exciting yet shimmeringly poetic". And Laura Kern of The New York Times wrote: "Asif Kapadia's feature debut is a minimalist but strikingly beautiful tale ...told with uncommon precision and depth."
But despite the critical acclaim, early box-office results have not been encouraging. The Warrior's first 10 days gross on four screens (two in Los Angeles and two in New York) has been a pitiful amount of $27,690. It is still too early to say how the film will fare in Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia and some of the other cities where it has just opened.
A couple of reasons can explain The Warrior's failure. Miramax postponed the film's release for such a long time. And now that Weinstein is leaving the company along with his brother Bob, the two are distributing their resources and focusing their attention on at least 10 films set to open before end-September. It includes The Libertine, a Johnny Depp period drama; Proof starring Gwyneth Paltrow; An Unfinished Life with Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez; and The Warrior.
Clearly The Warrior didn't get the marketing treatment that for instance, Miramax showered on Gurinder Chadha's Bride and Prejudice when they flew in its lead stars (including Aishwarya Rai) for a huge premiere. "I was hoping they would bring Irfan here," Kapadia said at the lunch at Devi. He acknowledged that Khan with his brooding eyes and presence would have been a great marketer.
But beyond Miramax, the Indian community in NY and LA hasn't given its support. The movie lacks the Bollywood-inspired filmmaking style that the Indian community so admired in Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham and Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding. It has almost become an orphan.
Critics have liked it, but no one wants to claim it. But Kapadia seems to be very understanding and accepting of the situation. "You don't just wake up and say when'll the movie be released? I didn't know when it would come out, if at all? It happens to a lot of movies. They come out directly on DVD. I think it's just the nature of the beast, especially when you are starting out."
Aseem Chhabra is a freelance writer based in New York, who has previously written for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer and Time Out, New York.