Shoebite's fate still uncertain

The Shoojit Sircar directorial Shoebite, which has been stuck in a legal battle for about a decade, has become the talk of Bollywood. Even with Amitabh Bachchan, who also stars in the film, taking to Twitter and requesting the producers to release it, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of the movie seeing the light of day.

This was Shoojit’s second film after Yahaan and was initially produced by Percept Picture Company, later taken under the banner of UTV Motion Pictures. And even after Percept sued UTV for copyright infringement, the fate of the film is unknown.

“I was told to do the film and I was signed by UTV. At that point in time it was not Disney and neither Fox. Now they are all together,” says Shoojit. “They may release it after the IPL. Let’s see where it goes. In fact, the studios have films worth Rs 40- Rs 50 crore. So, one small film does not matter to them. We are not aware of what is happening in the studios.”

Shoebite is the story of a man in his early 60s, who sets out on a journey of self-discovery. Amitabh had requested the makers to release the film, as a lot of hard work had gone into it. “Please…Please Please…UTV & Disney, or whoever else has it…Warners, whoever…Just release the film!! Lot of Labor been put…(sic),” he tweeted.

While there may be a legal battle, the case relates to Shoojit taking the film to UTV when PPC failed to release it. The latter filed a lawsuit against UTV to stall the film’s release. Though the case was dismissed, the film could not be released.