When Nikhil Advani visited a suburban theatre to watch TMK on Friday it wasn't only because he wanted to check out his own film's hero's latest offering. Nikhil wanted to see the first trailer of his own film Patiala House that was attached to TMK
To his shock the trailer of Patiala House was missing from the film since it couldn't be attached in time to all the prints of TMK
Laughs Nikhil joylessly, "All the prints of the trailers for the Dolby theatres could't be ready in time. So only about 70 percent of the Dolby theatres could show the trailer of Patiala House with Tees Maar Khan. Unfortunately I landed up in one of the theatres that didn't have my trailer attached to the film. Can you imagine? The world saw it. I couldn't."
Was it a last-minute decision to peg the Patiala House trailer to TMK?
Explains Nikhil, "No no. We had decided long ago to attach our first trailer to Tees Maar Khan. Akshay is a co-producer on both projects. Since Patiala is not a comedy we decided we'd wait for the release of TMK before starting the campaign."
Then Nikhil blurts out, " All the Dolby prints of the trailer couldn't be ready because there was some problem over what to put in the trailer."
Says Nikhil, "All I'll say is, there was some dispute over the content.Patiala House is not a comedy and I didn't want to pitch it as a comedy. My biggest compliment was when Rishi Kapoor (who plays Akshay's father) called up to say, 'You've hit a sixer with your first trailer.'
Akshay Kumar admits Patiala House takes him into another mood away from the comic. "There is only some black humour in Patiala House.
Otherwise it's a very dramatic story of a Sikh father who thinks it's unpatriotic of his British-Indian son to play cricket for the British team against India...Yes, there were creative differences over what the first trailer should look like.I am not just the actor on the project. I am the producer as well."
In brief, Akshay will have his say on what goes into the trailer.