Actor Kartik Tiwari is taking a back seat in the promotion of Subhash Ghai’s Kaanchi.
Timari, best known for his monologue in Pyaar Ka Punchnama, was nowhere to be seen until the closing moments of a Kaanchi special on TV show Comedy Nights With Kapil, which had director Subhash Ghai, his protegee Mishti and veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty as guests.
A source close to the show said: “We were instructed to bring on Kartik only at the end of the show and to focus on Ghai, his latest protegee Mishti and Mithunda.”
Tiwari says his lack of presence in the promotions could be attributed to the fact that the movie is woman-centric.
“If the film was called ‘Kaancha’ or ‘Kaancha-Kaanchi’, I’d have been equally prominent in the publicity,” he said.
However, the truth is that Ghai has big plans for him.
A prominent filmmaker who wants to sign Tiwari says he is being deliberately being kept under wraps.
“I saw Pyaar Ka Punchnama and was impressed enough by Kartik to want to sign him for one of my productions. However, I was told he was under an exclusive contract for Subhash Ghai’s next. So I waited,” said a producer-director, who didn’t want to be named.
“Queen and Revolver Rani are Kangana Ranaut’s films through and through. Yet, we see Kangana’s leading men Rajkummar Rao and Vir Das next to Kangana at every public event. There is no logic to leaving Kartik out of the publicity just because the new girl [Mishti] is the central character in Kaanchi. I’m sure Subhashji has a plan,” he added.
When asked about Tiwari, Ghai said: “I was looking at dozens of faces to play the male lead in Kaanchi. When I saw Kartik, I knew I had found my hero. The film is named after the girl. But Kartik’s character is very important.”