R Balki’s maiden directorial ‘Cheeni Kum’ (2007) starring Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu was a resounding success upon release. Over the years, the film has amassed a fandom and boasts an impressive spot in all the stakeholder’s filmography. ‘Cheeni Kum’ chronicles the story of an elderly narcissistic chef and restaurant owner who falls for a much younger woman. Shot entirely in London, the film was a fresh narrative and received several laurels. Now, years later, R Balki shares that he shot the film using borrowed equipment. Notably, the other film, which was an ensemble film, proved to be a box office dud.

Recently, the filmmaker reminisced about how he filmed ‘Cheeni Kum’ using borrowing equipment from Nikhil Advani’s big-budget film ‘Salam-e-Ishq.’ The same producer bankrolled both the titles and ‘Cheeni Kum’ yielded a much higher profit ratio. During his session at the MIT World Peace University, Balki recalled being over the moon when Amitabh Bachchan agreed to star in the film. He shared the news with his advertisement producer friend Sunil Manchanda who had previously also backed a few films. “Sunil was looking very serious and said, ‘When do we start?’ I asked, ‘What do you have to do with it?’ He replied, ‘Who else do you think is going to produce this?’ I asked him if he was sure and he said, ‘Of course.’ Though Cheeni Kum was a small-budget film, I didn’t understand the economics of cinema at that time.”

He added, “In those days, to shoot a whole film in London shoot would cost Rs 7-8 crore. That was a big budget, given that ours was a film with a small setting. Sunil didn’t say anything and I didn’t know what he was trying. Then I realised, he was doing a big film with 10 stars called Salaam-e-Ishq and was shooting it simultaneously. It was made for huge bucks of some Rs 60-70 crore. He was going to produce that in London and had tied up with another studio. He told them, ‘If you want Salaam-e-Ishq, you have to take Cheeni Kum as well.’ So, I was like a discount offer.” The filmmaker revealed that he took off from work, for the film and they agreed since he was not earning from the film.

“So, I went to London thinking I got a producer and everything else. And only after reaching there, I realised how tough it was to fund a film like this. We didn’t have money to hire a jib. They were shooting Salaam-e-Ishq in Trafalgar Square and when it was a break there, the jib used to be transported to the Cheeni Kum set without even a focus puller. We had just one camera.”  When probed if having a superstar like Bachchan on board didn’t help their situation, Balki said, “The aura of Amitabh Bachchan had nothing to do with what these studios. He was a Rs 500-crore star to me, but that’s not how they saw this film.”

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Continuing, Balki added, “When the films were released… this is the beauty of the cinema industry… the film that was done as a complimentary item made up for its budget and Salaam-e-Ishq bombed. The studio that bought it as a discount recovered a lot of money from my producer through Cheeni Kum. It’s very strange how it could have gone the other way around too. In cinema, one can know what’s right only after a film succeeds. No one can say what works prior to release.”

Meanwhile, ‘Salaam-e-Ishq’ featured Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, and John Abraham. Moreover, it also starred Vidya Balan, Akshaye Khanna, Ayesha Takia, Govinda, Shannon Esra, Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar. Despite the massive star power, the film failed commercially.