By Hindustan Times
Mumbai, Feb. 29 -- Should you were walking around Juhu yesterday, you'll have realised that cash doesn't grow on trees it hangs off billboards. To advertise their upcoming release Paan Singh Tomar, production house UTV Films risked losing R3.5 lakh in cash, which they strung up on a prominent hoarding opposite a Juhu coffee shop.
Confirming the news, Shikha Kapur, senior vicepresident of UTV Motion Pictures, says, "As Irrfan plays a robber within the film, we e film, we hought it might be a pleasant innoation within the outdoor advertising space. We're pegging it (the money bounty) as Paan Singh's loot. "
The production house claims to have made the desired arrangements to give protection to their stash, which was hoisted onto the poster opposite popular haunt Costa Coffee around noon. Shikha says, "RELATING TO security, there have been people posted across the hoarding, though they were wearing casual clothing."
The experiment only lasted for a short lived spell, because the filmmakers didn't wish the pile of money to draw any unwanted trouble. "We only put it up for a few hours, and took it down by 3 pm. We're aware that we cannot keep the money up there until the film releases," admits Shikha.
DN Nagar resident Rafiq Ahmed, who witnessed some adventurous opportunists scaling the billboard, says, "We saw a bag stuffed with money hanging from the hoarding. We thought that it was fake, but if some people tried climbing the poles of the hoarding to get the money, we realised that it was real." Passer-by Sahil Patel stopped his car to get a greater glimpse of the hoarding. "THERE HAS BEEN a lot of excitement at the ground as people were looking up on the cash hanging there. I wish I knew climb," he says. Within the Tighmanshu Dhuliadirected film, Irrfan Khan takes at the role of the real-life dacoit.
