“Mimi” director Laxman Utekar about the leakage on piracy sites
The movie “Mimi” is Bollywood’s attempt of speaking out loud on serious themes like surrogacy and the way the upper class uses women’s bodies, but still, somehow it ended up being the Bollywood movie with quite a lot of dancing.
Furthermore, the movie was leaked on pirate sites. Mimi director Laxman Utekar said he and his colleagues were “stunned” to hear that the film had leaked four days before its intended release on piracy platforms. Mimi, starring Kriti Sanon, was set to hit theaters on July 30. However, bootlegged versions of the film were made available on unauthorized streaming services on Monday evening.
Producer Dinesh Vijan and Kriti Sanon stated, just hours after the news of the leak made headlines, that they had opted to release the film four days early. Mimi was streaming on Netflix and JioCinema within hours after the breach. “I feel sad because we worked hard on the film,” told Laxman Utekar to Mid-Day about the leak. “Mimi” took us two years to create. We waited long for the theatres to open, but the situation compelled us to release it on OTT. We were satisfied with the fact that it will be watched by the audience, [no matter the medium]. After what happened on Monday, we were stunned. It makes us wonder if we could have been more careful.”
During an Instagram live, Dinesh and Kriti announced that the film would be released early. Dinesh explained that the early release is a birthday present for Kriti, who turned 27 on July 27. “Just like newborns are born prematurely, our film may be released early as well,” Dinesh had stated. “Mimi STREAMING NOW!!!” Kriti captioned a video of the live stream she posted to her Instagram account.
For more context, Mimi, a ‘young fit’ woman in a small town in Rajasthan, is played by Kriti. She doesn’t want to feed her family; instead, she wants to be a Bollywood star, a dream she thinks might come true when an American couple arrives asking for an Indian oven to bake their bun in. Pankaj Tripathi plays the devious driver Bhanu, who orchestrates everything. Mimi agrees to allow the pair to sow their seed at her land in exchange for a pledge of Rs. 20 lakh to buy a Dabboo Ratnani portfolio shot. Please excuse the overuse of analogies; this is simply me preparing you for a slew of ‘khet’, ‘beej’, and ‘ganna’ references in the film.
A deal is made, money is exchanged, and Mimi becomes pregnant. Mimi hides her secret from her parents with the help of her friends Shama (played by Sai Tamhankar) and Bhanu (played by Manoj Pahwa and Supriya Pathak). Everyone from Pankaj Tripathi to Manoj Pahwa tries their hand at humor, but with mediocre writing, no one succeeds in tickling the funny bone. In the film, lies and secrets produce a lot of uncertainty, but they never provide any amusement for the audience. No, cheesy background music and whistles aren’t hilarious.
Thankfully, when tragedy comes, things become a little less bothersome. However, the American couple abruptly cancels their order, even though the box is already in travel. The best thing they can do right now is just to ignore their delivery guy, our very pregnant Mimi. She lies to her screaming mother and disappointed father that the child belongs to Bhanu, although she is helpless and has a complicated story behind her large tummy. Surprisingly, they are more progressive than many of the affluent parents seen on Indian Matchmaking.
Watch the trailer here:
https://youtu.be/_sc3HyeNxPs
