By Subhash K Jha

Considering the film has no known established stars Abhishek Kapoor's youth-fest Kai Po Che, detailing the the criss-crossing kismet of three youngsters on the threshold of their lives, has elicited an exceptional confidence-level in its producers UTV.

The film was screened at the Berlin Film Festival last week almost two weeks ahead of its worldwide release this Friday.

Says a source close to the project, `And UTV's faith in the product paid off. They took a big chance by screening the film at Berlin just weeks ahead of the worldwide release. Anything could have gone wrong. Negative reviews could have filtered back. But UTV, bolstered by the unexpected success of Remo d'Souza's ABCD last week showed the film at Berlin to a receptive audience. `

And now in an even more audacious display of confidence in the product the producers decided to hold the film's Mumbai premiere on Monday, a full three days in advance of the film's Mumbai release.


`Suicidal confidence, I'd say, ` says a filmmaker. `It's just not correct to show your film to a preview audience so much in advance. Thursday evening us when premieres happen. Remember what happened to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya?

It was premiered on a Wednesday since Thursday was Diwali. SMS messages against the film began pouring in on Wednesday night. By the time the film was released 36 hours after its premiere the damage was done. The film was written off on release. `

A member of the Kai Po Che cast commented, `We've no idea why the film is being premiered on a Monday. We're just going along with whatever we're told. `