“Now that theatres are opening and people are going back to cinemas to be uplifted, inspired, entertained, I see nothing but good tidings.” – Anand Pandit

With more than 50 films as producer along with rave reviews for his films Big Bull with Abhishek Bachchan and Chehre which starred the great Amitabh Bachchan, Anand Pandit is now being hailed as a producer with the Midas touch.

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Indeed, he’s supposed to be the ‘go-to’ man for A-listers in Bollywood with his premium films as well as his high-end, luxury real estate company, Lotus Developers which has developed residences for the who’s who of Bollywood.

Stardust caught up with Anand Pandit to ask him about his upcoming films ‘Thank God’ and Marathi film ‘Victoria’ which are lined up for this year as well as business prospects in cinema post-Covid. Read on…

Your film ‘Chehre’ was released in theatres and then had an OTT release, according to you what was different in terms of the response you received from the audience?

When we released ‘Chehre’, we wanted to bring some good cheer to the theatres and we felt that the production values and the stature of Amitabh Bachchan deserved to be celebrated on the big screen. The audience response was positive but at that time, not many people were lining up to watch movies in theatres. When we released the film on Amazon Prime, we realized that people were discovering other qualities in the narrative. …The fact that the dialogues were thought-provoking and the suspense built up slowly to reach a boiling point. In a way, the film was suited for both mediums and we are glad that audiences got to enjoy it on the big screen and the small one.

How was it working with Amitabh Bachchan - I believe he didn’t take any fee for the film.