Music channel trying to sabotage Patiala House?

February 1, 2011 - 12:00 AM IST

Is there a music/entertainment channel up in arms to sabotage Patiala House? Going by some of the very prominent segments which are being run on these channels, it pretty much seems to be the case.

Says a trade follower on condition of anonymity, "This is much more than just apparent and really, all of it is happening in bad taste. There are capsules being run which are filled with out and out negative sentiments against the film, its lead actor (Akshay Kumar), it's director (Nikhil Advani) and it's co-producer (Bhushan Kumar from T-Series) . It appears there is an entire tirade against the film."

Those who have seen these capsules can pretty much see a one way campaign which is entirely anti-Patiala House. Whether is it the promos or the music, everything is being ridiculed.

"It is nothing short of being childish actually", continues the trade follower, "The fact remains that the channel has been having issues with T-Series for quite long now. Due to their stand off, none of the software of this music company is currently being run there. Now since T-Series pretty much has a monopoly over the software, the music channel is left without any content for it's 24X7 service."

Resultantly, over a period of time, the TRPs of this music channel has plummeted to an all time low, hence resulting in other rival channels taking the lead. This has resulted in a vendetta like situation with Patiala House finding itself in the middle of all the mayhem.

"This is sad", says another trade observer, "Also, this is not the first time when the channel has kick started a campaign like this. Even in case of Tees Maar Khan, it had called it a flop two weeks prior to its release while also quoting the losses to be in the range of Rs. 20-30 crores. The channel had its own weird calculations to show which came without any basis."

Now this time around the attack is full frontal with no one associated with the film being spared. In the name of comments coming from the 'aam junta' (who have seemingly been 'interviewed' around the prospects of Patiala House), it pretty much appears to be 'feeding' job where there seem to be clear instructions around going out and out negative.

"Well, it is nothing short of mischief because the facts are totally on the contrary", says the follower, "It is being said that Akshay is repeating his act when the fact is that it is years after Ek Rishta that he is actually playing a sober family man to the core in Patiala House. Music is being said to be a downer when the fact is that it is doing very well. The promotion is said to be lacklustre when the fact is that it has been intelligently laid out so that audience expectation are totally different from what they usually expect from an Akshay Kumar starrer. As for the commercial appeal, Patiala House has been made on a modest budget in a partnership mode which means that it is safe on the table itself."

With the trade being confident about Patiala House continuing the golden run that 2011 has been enjoying so far after the success of No One Killed Jessica, Yamla Pagla Deewana, Dhobi Ghat and Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji, one waits to see what's next that the music channel has in stores for weeks to come!