Boney Kapoor Says Ajay Devgn's Maidaan Gave Him 'Sleepless Nights': 'Taj Catered Food, Budget Escalated'

Ajay Devgn’s highly anticipated Maidaan has been delayed multiple times for it’s release. While the film has wrapped its shooting and was all set to release on June 2023, after many date changes, the film’s theatrical release has been put on hold again. Producer Boney Kapoor who’s backing the film opened up for the first time regarding the same. In an new interview, he revealed about the challenges he has faced to produce the upcoming sports drama.

While speaking to The New Indian, Boney stated that the pandemic, unpredictable weather, and other unforeseen circumstances ended up causing major delays and budget overages in the Ajay Devgn-starrer.

Boney also revealed that he has not received a good amount of insurance either to cover the losses that happened due to multiple delays. “Besides Maidaan, there’s not a single penny I owe anyone,” he asserted. “I never get demoralised. I catch the bull by the horns, and I sleep peacefully. But I’ve been having sleepless nights recently because of Maidaan. But for the first time in my life, I feel the situation is not in my control.”

Boney also shared that he had to lease out a 16-acre piece of land for more than three years to build a football pitch for the film, which also added for the budget. He added, “That set was there for more than three years, and that’s what escalated the budget of the film. We haven’t overshot, but we had to pay rent for the ground, we had to remunerate the curators, and we had to maintain the ground… We had a crew of almost 500-600 people every day. We had Taj catering the food. We had two or three ambulances on set.”

Kapoor explained, “All these calamities and the pandemic created a major, major (problem),” Kapoor said. “And unfortunately, insurance is not there… As of now, we’ve got nothing. What they’ve offered is a measly amount of what I’ve spent.”

Helmed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, Maidaan stars Ajay Devgn and Priyamani in pivotal roles. The film revolves around the “golden age of Indian football.” It’s still unclear when the film will finally release.