Only two people watched Masoom on release day, recalls director Shekhar Kapur

Masoom is now a cult classic, but on Day 1, it played to an almost empty theatre. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur has recalled how his 1983 debut was dismissed as an “article film”, nearly ended his career, and then staged a miraculous midweek comeback that no one saw coming.

In a social media post shared on Monday, Kapur recalled visiting the main theatre on the film’s opening day, only to be met with a crushing sight. “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 (sic),” he wrote.

At the time, black marketing of cinema tickets was rampant, with groups buying seats in bulk to resell them at inflated prices. But Masoom’s dismal opening left even the black marketeers counting their losses. Kapur remembered being surrounded by angry young men outside the theatre after the first show. “They had lost their money that day (sic),” he wrote.

In a moment that stayed with him, one of them offered an unsolicited career tip. “Sir, the problem is you’ve made an ‘article’ film. If you want a career, don’t do that (sic).” Kapur later realised the term was meant to describe an ‘artistic’ film – a label that, in those days, was seen as box-office poison.

For nearly a week, the situation refused to improve. Shows ran to empty halls from Friday through midweek, forcing distributors to pull the film from theatres. “I remember the feeling that day when they told me they had decided to give up trying to hold the theatres (sic),” Kapur wrote. “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 (sic)," he added.

Then, unexpectedly, everything changed.

“Something strange happened on Thursday (sic),” Kapur recalled. A friend called asking for tickets to Masoom – a request Kapur initially dismissed as a joke. But that Thursday, one cinema hall filled up. By Friday, queues had formed. Over the weekend, distributors scrambled to reclaim the screens they had abandoned. The film was soon declared a hit.

Decades later, Kapur still wonders what sparked the turnaround. “People say it was word of mouth – but how could it be, when hardly anyone saw the film (sic)?” he wrote, adding that Masoom eventually went on to achieve cult status.

Read Shekhar Kapur's full post here:

The reflection comes as Kapur prepares to return to the world of Masoom with Masoom: The Next Generation, a spiritual sequel that reunites original cast members Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah. The film also stars Manoj Bajpayee, Nithya Menen and Kapur’s daughter Kaveri, and will explore themes of home, belonging and personal identity.

As he gears up for the next chapter, Kapur leaves audiences with a lingering question – whether the new film, like its predecessor, will once again be dismissed as an ‘article’ film before finding its moment.