I failed as a producer with 'Bombay Velvet': Vikas Bahl

Panaji, Nov 25 (IANS) "Bombay Velvet" was touted as one of the most ambitious film of Bollywood but it turned out to be a dud at the box office and filmmaker Vikash Bahl said he failed as a producer with the movie.

Bahl admitted compromising on creative vision after getting intimidated by the scale of the project to play safe.

"Movie doing well and movie not doing well has to exist. I think in hindsight, the experience of 'Bombay Velvet' was the best thing to happen to us. It will make Anurag Kashyap even better director. I feel I failed as a producer," Bahl said on the sidelines of Film Bazaar here on Tuesday.

"When Anurag was doing the film I used to go and tell him 'that it is a big budget film and we need 'U' certificate so we cannot do this or that like have a very dark character," he said.

With Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar in the leads, the movie brought back the retro days. It is set in the 1960s and is a large screen adaptation of Gyan Prakash's "Mumbai Fables".

The story is about a man with big dreams and the extent he is willing to go to be successful. But its box office performance was disappointing.

Bahl shares that by restricting Kashyap he 'handicapped him' and will never do it again.

"I failed as a producer terribly because if Anurag was getting to he would have made his wildest film. I handicapped him and will never do it again," he said.

Even Kashyap has confessed that the failure of "Bombay Velvet" still gives him nightmares and he has learnt his lesson about making films in a controlled budget.

Meanwhile, Bahl's hit and miss account doesn't end at "Bombay Velvet". His last directorial "Shaandaar" also failed to elicit a good response and vanished from the theatre in no time. Click the Movie button below for more info:
Bombay Velvet