10 years of Tere Bin Laden: No one was ready to release it till Boney Kapoor stepped up, recalls Abhishek Sharma

Abhishek Sharma’s Tere Bin Laden (2010) was an out-of-the-box comedy that received much acclaim when it was released on 16 July 2010. Featuring Ali Zafar, Pradhuman Singh, Piyush Mishra, Sugandha Garg, Rahul Singh and Barry John, it told the story of a journalist who uses a lookalike of dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden in a video to create havoc.

On the 10th anniversary of the film's release, filmmaker Sharma recalls how no distributor was ready to release his directorial debut until a senior producer was impressed with the film.

“Tere Bin Laden was an out-of-the-box comedy which did not get picked up easily by distributors," Sharma said in a statement. "My producers [Pooja and Aarti Shetty] and I showed the film to a lot of leading distributors who were not very encouraging. Finally, Boney Kapoor loved the film and offered to release it.”

Sharma has since directed the successful John Abraham-starrer Parmanu (2018). His next film is Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari (2020), which stars Manoj Bajpayee, Diljit Dosanjh and Fatima Sana Shaikh. 

Looking back on his journey thus far, Sharma said, “Today, after 10 years, the industry has evolved and I have also grown as a director. Now, I have actors like John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee and Diljit Dosanjh trusting my vision with out-of-the-box ideas. This is a great feeling and I think the success of Tere Bin Laden has played a big role in making me a trustworthy filmmaker.”

Bajpayee congratulated Sharma on completing 10 years in the film industry. He shared a happy birthday meme which included Sharma and the actors of Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari.