Sharing its name with one god got Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest magnum opus into endless trouble. Releasing on the same day as the retirement of another was unfortunate for it as well.

Though Sachin Tendulkar got out before lunch, scoring 74 and missing the dream final century at Wankhade in Mumbai, people stayed at home and watched the god of cricket bat for one last time rather than head to the cinemas to catch Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-leela.

Back-to-back centuries by Cheteshwara Pujara and Rohit Sharma were, of course, good enough reasons to stay put in front of TVs.

Sachin’s greatest fan from Muzaffarpur, Sudhir Gautam, however, had a field despite the retirement of his god. Reliance Life Insurance has signed Sudhir for four years to secure his future.

Usually seen with his body painted in the Tricolour, waving the National Flag and blowing a conch shell during cricket matches, Sudhir will get financial aid from the insurance company to help him continue with his passion for cricket. “Reliance Life Insurance has signed Sudhir as part of its corporate social responsibility to promote appreciation for sports and will offer financial aid to help him continue with his passion for the game,” the company said in a statement.

Bhansali’s string of bad luck with the film starring Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh and inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet continued.

He has already had to change the name of the film twice because of petitions from various religious groups claiming that it was disrespectful to Lord Ram or confused the audience about the traditional folk theatre form of ramleela. On Friday morning, multiplexes and single screen cinema had only 10 per cent occupancy.

Thirteen shows — eight at Cinepolis, four at Mona and one Elphinstone — have been given to the film. But it only earned Rs 5,32,206 on the day of its release.

Cinepolis manager Abhishek Ranjan said: “No doubt, Sachin playing his final innings had a role to play in the low turn out at the shows. People were probably watching the match at home.”

He added that the turnout at the morning show unimpressive but he was hopeful that the film would bounce back over the weekend.

At single-screen cinemas, too, there were very few people buying tickets at the counters. Even those who could tear themselves away from TVs to catch a show had few words of praise for the film. Rajendra Nagar resident Animesh Kumar, who saw the film at Mona, said: “Watching Sachin was far better than watching this film. I should have stayed at home and watched the highlights instead of coming and wasting my time and money.”

Did you catch a show of Ram-leela? Tell ttbihar@abp.in