- By Vridhi Soodhan
- Wed, 24 Sep 2025 11:30 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Anupam Kher recently directed and starred in his passion project Tanvi The Great, a moving drama inspired by his niece with autism. Despite his heartfelt efforts over four years, including writing and producing, the movie struggled to find commercial success after its release in July. The movie was praised for its sincerity and debut performance by Shubhangi Dutt, but still could not draw a large audience to the theatres. Tanvi the Great faced stiff competition from Mohit Suri's musical romance Saiyaara, which was released on the same day and received immense love from the viewers. Starring newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, the Yash Raj Films production became a blockbuster, largely overshadowing Tanvi the Great at the box office.
Tanvi the Great failed to connect with the viewers, leaving Anupam Kher disappointed. The actor shared the emotional toll the movie’s failure took on him and told Indian Express, "I worked for four years on this film, one year of writing, one year of music. I wrote and directed the film. We released the film on the same day when Yash Raj Films' Saiyaara was released and it got completely wiped out. It depressed me. It made me feel very sad, not just for myself, but for the new actor, whom I took from my acting school, and almost 200 people worked on the film."
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The actor further revealed that the movie also suffered financial losses, as just one month prior to the release of the film, the financier disappeared. That’s when Anupam Kher’s friends, who were doctors and lawyers, stepped in to help him financially. Eventually, the movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and even actor Robert De Niro saw the movie till the interval and praised it. The President of India also watched Tanvi the Great.
Anupam Kher admitted that people were more drawn to watch a romantic drama as compared to an inspirational movie and said, "Everything was going fine, but the world wanted to see a love story, and rightfully so. Young, teenage love story had not come for a long time and the system here is that even if you're releasing the film in 400 theatres, if the other film is doing very well, they will remove your film. So it was a failure which was very heartbreaking for me."
On being asked about which movie’s success surprised him the most, his answer was clear - Saiyaara. He even stated that Aditya Chopra must also have been surprised by Saiyaara’s success. But the actor also mentioned that he was glad that it was Aditya Chopra’s movie as he considered him a part of his family.