After 'Shaandaar' debacle, Vikas Bahl still raring to go

The super duper success of "Queen" raised the bar of expectations from Vikas Bahl. But his "Shaandaar" failed to elicit a hearty response. The filmmaker says his only aim is to work harder for a better film.

"I loved that movie 'Shaandaar' so setback was not for me. I think we just have to work harder to make the next film and hopefully you (I) don't get written off as a director. The idea is to get back to the writing board and work hard for the next film," Bahl told a group of reporters on the sidelines of Film Bazaar here on Tuesday.

"Shaandaar", which was termed as the year's biggest, craziest and zaniest wedding celebration on the silver screen, turned out to be a damp squib at the box office despite its star cast featuring names like Pankaj Kapur, Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.

The film, which marked Shahid's first film after his marriage, tried to be a fantasy film with a backdrop of an ostentatious Indian wedding, and released on October 22.

Bahl, who tasted massive success from all quarters with "Queen", said: "I still need some time to gauge what went wrong with 'Shaandaar'. I will do it in some time, but I think the sense of humour did not work with the people... Only I found it funny.

"I think there were too many stories to follow and people didn't figure out exactly what to follow," he said.

The director also said the film was not an arrow shot in the dark as he "knew what he was doing".

"I was aware what I was doing and I took my chances in doing that. I feel the back stories and animation to connect to the storytelling was not simple... I think I experimented too many things," he said.

Bahl will continue to experiment with films.

"There is no other choice," he told IANS.