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Ratan Tata's Only Failed Venture: When Teamed Up With Amitabh Bachchan

The 2004 film Aetbaar was the only time Ratan Tata entered Bollywood, as a film producer. The film starred Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham, Bipasha Basu.

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By Kanan Parmar
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Ratan Tata's Only Failed Venture

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Ratan Tata along with the Tata Group was associated in many sectors in India. His conglomerate was into virtually all realms of enterprise, including aviation, steel, food and many others. But there was one passion that Indians have; 'cinema' which was out of Tata’s radar for as long as anyone could remember.

BUT it took an Amitabh Bachchan film to do so. Ratan Tata did enter Bollywood, though not for a long time. But, unfortunately, that was not entirely beneficial either. Unlike all his other business ventures, this one did not taste success. Fancying a new genre altogether in 2004, Ratan Tata entered the entertainment industry, specifically in filmmaking as a funding investor. He was also the co-producer of Vikram Bhatt’s romantic thriller film Aetbaar whose star cast included Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham, Bipasha Basu.

Tata BSS had financed the film which was an Indian remixed version of the Hollywood thriller film Fear released in 1996. The film had concentrated on the issue of obsession and the relationships between families on the perverted side of romantic attraction. However, Aetbaar – with a star-studded cast to boot and much buzz prior to its premiere – did little to stir the cash registers.

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Shooting of Aetbaar was wrapped up in ₹9.5 crore and the havoc did start in the first week and closed earning an amount slightly above ₹5 crore. Tata had to bear part of its loss because it made just ₹8 crore lifetime worldwide collections and could never be remade.

Unfortunately, even Aetbaar did not warm the critics up while many freely criticized the film for cheesy dialogues. The film was attempting to capitalize on John Abraham and Bipasha Basu pair which has recently released in Jism, here also it failed.

This was to be Ratan Tata’s only outing as a film producer.

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