Shekhar Kapur says 'Masoom' opened badly, gained momentum later

Mumbai (PTI): Shekhar Kapur still remembers the advice he received from the man who sold tickets in black. It was to not make 'article' films as only two people, including the director, had turned up to watch "Masoom" on the release day in the cinema hall.

Sharing a photograph from the 1983 movie, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Urmila Matondkar, Jugal Hansraj and Aradhana Srivastav, Kapur wrote about the disappointing first day of the movie that became a major milestone in his career.

"Those days ‘black marketing’ of cinema tickets was really prevalent .. young men, or even gangs, would bulk by cinema tickets and then sell them at higher prices on the day of the show.. of course if the hall was full .. Except the first show on the first day for 'Masoom', the hall was completely empty!"

"Outside I got surrounded by some pretty angry looking young boys when they discovered I was the director .. they had lost their money that day. I must have looked pretty crestfallen. So one of them actually took pity on me, and said, ‘Sir .. the problem is you’ve made an ‘article’ film’ .. if you want a career, don’t do that'," Kapur shared in a note on X.

Throw back pic from my first film, Masoom.

On the first day of release, I went to the main theatre … and there were only two people in the whole cinema hall.. and one of them was me !

Those days ‘black marketing’ of cinema tickets was really prelavent .. young men, or even… pic.twitter.com/FyqT3iFlnx

— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) February 9, 2026

The director, who went on to make critically-acclaimed films such as "Mr India", "The Bandit Queen" and "Elizabeth" and its sequel in Hollywood, said he kept thinking what an "article film" meant when it suddenly struck him that the guy meant he had made an "artistic film".

"Well, the Friday of release .. all the cinema halls were empty .. as they were on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. The distributors of the film gave up trying to support the film. It was too expensive to keep the film showing to empty halls.

"I remember the feeling that day .. when they told me they had decided to give up trying to hold the theatres .. I walked the streets of Mumbai and thought about what I was going to do next in my life, for making films was certainly no longer an option," Kapur said.

The movie, considered a classic even today, revolved around a couple -- DK and Indu, who have two daughters. The gentle rhythm of their married life is broken when DK’s illegitimate son, Rahul, comes to live with them after his mother passes away. While the children bond, Indu struggles to accept the child as her own.

Kapur, who is making a sequel to the movie with the title "Masoom, the Next Generation", said he had given up on the film's fate when something surprising happened on Thursday.

"A friend called me and asked if I could help him get tickets to 'Masoom'. I told him that was a bad joke. But then.. On Thursday one cinema hall had filled up .. then on Friday there were lines of people waiting to buy tickets .. and over the weekend the distributors were scrambling to get back the halls they had given up, and my ‘Article’ film was declared a hit," he recalled.

Kapur said people attributed the success of "Masoom" to word of mouth but how did that become a possible when no one saw the movie when it released? "What happened that Thursday ? .. I still wonder as am about to go into making ‘Masoom, the next generation’ .. years after Masoom the original became a cult film ..

Is ‘Masoom, the next generation’ another ‘Article film’?"