Not easy to take a project like Jagga and live with it for over 4 years: Pritam

Mumbai: Expectations were sky high when Anurag Basu’s detective musical ‘Jagga Jasoos’ released after a delay of four years (on July 14), but, sadly, the box office collections did not do justice to the hype that was created around this Ranbir Kapoor-Katrina Kaif film.

Ranbir, who collaborated with Basu for a second time after 2012-released ‘Barfi’, also turned producer for this flick. So, when the film tanked at the box office, Ranbir’s father Rishi Kapoor blasted Basu and music composer Pritam for its failure.

He told a tabloid, “Honestly, Neetu (Kapoor) and I saw the film on Thursday, only a day ahead of the release. Till Wednesday, Anurag Basu was still mixing the film. Can you imagine that? Pritam [composer] probably delivered the music only a week before. What can you say? Basu doesn't take an opinion from anybody. Today's filmmakers are doing this with everybody. They don't show their films before release to take opinions and treat it as though they're making a nuclear bomb. I didn't hate or love the film. I only felt it needed to be abridged by 20 minutes.”

Ever since Rishi Kapoor’s comments on the director-composer came out, everyone wanted to know about their reactions to it. Earlier, Pritam was asked about it during an event but he chose not to reply.

But recently, during an interview with a news agency, Pritam spoke about the controversy at length. He said, “I have spent enough time in the industry to not believe any interview verbatim. Unless I get a personal message, I don't believe in anything. Rishi Ji is somebody I respect a lot, he is a senior, I've grown up watching his films. On top of it, he is Ranbir's dad. I am in love with Ranbir for his talent and the person he is.”

Talking about India’s first ever musical, a proud Pritam said, “There was nothing more good, challenging or more fun than Jagga Jasoos. I am really proud of the film. This one is for posterity and I think it will survive time.”

As far as the delays are concerned, Pritam feels it was due to the fact that ‘Jagga Jasoos’ is a ‘complicated project’. “It was a complicated project and that's why it took time. It's not easy to take up a subject like that and live with it for over four years. Anurag is more passionate than I am. All of us did multiple projects during that time but he didn't do anything else,” added the music composer.

Regardless of how his films perform at the box office, Pritam considers director Anurag Basu a genius and jack of all trades. In conclusion, a very smitten Pritam was all praise for the filmmaker, “Anurag is a genius. I've worked with so many filmmakers, and he is one of the best we have. He is not only the master in direction and screenplay but also good in all the other aspects of filmmaking.”