Assamese film ‘Anur’ is finally getting released on its original schedule on January 27. ‘Anur’, a film based on a short story by Anuradha Sharma Pujari and directed by Monjul Baruah, had an issue with its release date due to the big budget Bollywood movie ‘Pathaan’.
But later, Assam government later stepped in to help sort the issue.
“We are thankful to the Assam State Film (Finance & Development) Corporation Limited and its chairman Simanta Shekhar for their intervention which resulted in getting our film released as per the schedule on January 27,” said director Monjul Baruah.
‘Anur’, however, will not get the sufficient amount of screens as per the expectations because of ‘Pathaan’.
“We had booked the release date in April 2022 much before the release date for Pathaan was announced. Only ‘Avatar 2’ was the big budget film in December. We know the volume and impact of ‘Avatar’. So, we took the date on January 27. Initially we wanted at least 31 halls. But now, theatre owners are not providing the screens. This is so frustrating,” Monjul Baruah added.
Now, with the intervention of the government, the hall owners have agreed to give a few slots to ‘Anur’, but this is “not sufficient”.
“We have always been voicing for the rise of regional cinema. Even the government also talked about this and there is a film policy. But nothing seems to be working against the strong lobby in Mumbai and Kolkata,” Abhijit Laskar, publicity designer of ‘Anur’, said.
Monjul Baruah said that a theatre each in Jorhat and Sonari have agreed to screen ‘Anur’. Also, a theatre in Guwahati started bookings for the movie for a single show every day on January 27, 28 and 29.
