With one of the biggest clashes of the year between Sultan and Raees averted, it seems more Bollywood films are trying to avoid the situations of more than one movie releasing on the same day.
Ever since news broke that Raees and Sultan will release during Eid this year, all eyes were set on the “clash of the titans”, as neither of the parties seemed to back off and were consistent in their stand to have a clash.
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees, however, was pushed to January 26, 2017, avoiding a release with the Salman Khan-starrer.
The makers of Raees cited “appropriate showcasing” of a film of “such magnitude” for the push, but the move comes right after SRK’s last release Dilwale underperformed at the box office as it clashed with Bajirao Mastani last year.
The Raees – Sultan clash is not the only movie event which was averted. Sunny Deol’s Ghayal Once Again was initially scheduled to release with Salman’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo last year.
The action-drama was, however, pushed to January 15, 2016. In a surprising turn of events, the film’s release was yet again pushed to February 5.
While January 15, 2016 had only one film Chalk N Duster playing, release of Ghayal Once Again on the same day would have meant coming one week after Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Wazir and a week before Akshay Kumar’s Airlift.
The weekend of May 27 was chock-a-block with Naseeruddin Shah’s Waiting, Ram Gopal Varma’s Veerappan and Radhika Apte-starrer Phobia.
Earlier, Richa Chadda-starrer Cabaret was also scheduled to release on the same date. The film’s release was, however, pushed ahead to avoid an apparent direct face-off with other films.
Director Kaustav Narayan Niyogi had said that the film was delayed as the makers “want to do the promotions in a robust manner” and ensure a “dignified release”. Apart from Cabaret, another film which was reported to release on May 27 was Anurag Kashyap’s Raman Raghav 2.0.
The film’s release on the same date would have meant a box office clash between Varma and Kashyap, who were once collaborators but later fell out. RGV’s film traces the life of sandalwood smuggler and bandit Veerappan, while the Bombay Velvet director’s next film revolves around a serial killer.
On the possibility of a clash, Varma had even said “May the best killer win”, but the makers of Raman Raghav 2.0 announced that the film will hit theatres on June 24 instead.
