by Subhash K Jha

UTV seems have still not got the fundas for all-India marketing right. Their new premium product Rang De Basanti got itself into a last-minute crisis when just days before the film's release the Delhi-UP distributor named Dolly decided to pull out.

Trying hard to cope with all the final preparations for release the tense director Rakeysh Mehra rushed to Delhi.

"It was nothing but a distrubutor trying to twist our arms for a last-minute discount. This is being done quite often in quite a few territories these days. Distributors agree to a price and then back out at the final hour hoping they can get the price reduced. I was adamant. I told the Delhi distributor to leave the film if he wanted. He finally came back to the price we had agreed on."

The boxoffice prospects of Rang De Basanti are looking really bright. The Mumbai distrubtor Anil Thadani who had earlier bought ninety prints of the film has asked for added prints at the last minute.