Anupam Kher has come out in defense of his second directorial Tanvi The Great as the film didn’t manage to pull-in audiences amid the massive success of Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara. Tanvi The Great clashed with Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara at the box office on July 17 and as per Sacnilk, has managed to earn a meagre Rs 2.52 crore worldwide while the Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda musical has amassed Rs 500 crore.

Speaking to News18, Anupam said that he doesn’t believe Saiyaara’s craze led to his film’s failure. “A few years down the line, when someone will ask you what are your five favourite films, you won’t name the ones based on which of these movies made a business worth crore. You’ll name the ones which touched your hearts. Maybe Tanvi The Great didn’t mint much money, but it is still priceless."

He added, “I recently met a lady outside the theatre who hugged me tightly and started crying, saying this was the best film she has ever watched. You don’t value everything based only on money. Agar paisa hi sab kuch hota toh phir log hamesha five star hotel me hi khate na, dhaba koi kyu jata (If money was everything, then people would always eat at five-star hotels—why would anyone go to a roadside dhaba?). My film is outstanding commercially."

Tanvi The Great tells the story of a 21-year-old autistic girl who dreams of joining the army in order to fulfil her father’s dream. The film also starred Anupam along with Iain Glen, Jackie Shroff, Pallavi Joshi, Arvind Swami and Nassar in pivotal roles.

CE’s review of the film reads, “Kher does it all and forgets the soul. Even his performance stays believable at first but becomes almost animated later. His idea of educating us is designing Vidya’s character as an expert on autism and delivering half-baked lectures about it through patchily dubbed sequences from English to Hindi. There is nothing to reflect, little to understand and not much to empathise with.”