When Ajay Devgns Maidaan hit the silver screens in April last year it failed to become a commercial and critical success. It was Boney Kapoors passion project with production starting in 2019 and taking nearly five years to complete. Initially planned with a budget of Rs 120 crore the films budget soared to Rs 210 crore causing a huge loss for the producer. Moreover Boney had to take several loans to settle his debts. Boney Kapoor recalls the hurdles faced during Maidaans production In an interaction with Komal Natha Boney Kapoor shared his take on the Ajay Devgn-starrer and said I lost money in Maidaan. The film was stranded for over four years because of COVID-19 pandemic. Imagine about 70% of the film was complete by January 2020 right before the pandemic. We were supposed to shoot the matches from the last week of March. All the international teams had come. There was a crew of about 200 to 250 people from overseas–they were the players from different countries. However when lockdown was announced in March all shoots were halted and air travel was suspended. Nobody knew that the lockdown will be extended for so many months. I kept the unit here until the last flight of the country was announced. This happened with me about four times. Apart from the pandemic I also suffered because of cyclone that came during that time. My entire stadium set was wiped out. Who do I explain all this to? The budget that we decided for the film was Rs 120 crore but we eventually ended up spending about Rs 210 crore. He said. How pandemic-related restrictions inflated Maidaans budget? Talking about the budget increase Boney said At any given time when we were shooting the matches we would have a unit of about 800 people and because of COVID there were restrictions. During that time I ordered food from Taj for the entire unit. I had to keep four ambulances and doctors at all times. Due to restrictions we were not allowed to keep over 150 people on set. We were not allowed to eat together for the sake of maintaining distance. I had to put up about five tents just for refill. A portion of the budget was only spent on the bottled water given to the entire unit on set. It was enough to fund an entire small-budget film. We had done a deal with a particular brand. They supplied water and that bill was humongous. We had to give distilled water to all so that they feel safe. All these SOPs cost me a lot of money. And I had to do all this for almost three and a half years Boney said. Boney shared that he had to take a loan to pay the people who had worked on the film. After Maidaan flopped at the box office I had to borrow money to pay my vendors. The film failed but it was not their fault. They in fact patiently waited for four long years with some even reducing their fees by 10-15%. He said. Boney shared that lenders always trust him because he is always there and have maintained a bond. Maidan was directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma and revolved around the life of football coach Syed Abdul Rahim