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Friday is no more the release date for Hindi films. Over the past few years, it has become almost de rigueur with film producers and distributors to book the theatres months in advance to exploit special holidays
There is a new form of advance booking in the Hindi film industry — booking of release dates nearly a year in advance. That is the new mantra of the 21st century by industry to rake in the moolah for their film. Top filmstars have nominated a day they prefer to release their latest flick — Eid is flagged as Salman Khan’s day; Diwali is Shah Rukh Khan’s favourite; Aamir Khan is all for Christmas week, January 26 is for Hrithik Roshan and so on! This is almost an unchanging schedule if everything goes according to plans to avoid any clash and unnecessary competition at the ticket counters.
The film industry has learnt to cash in on this weakness of people. Over the last couple of years, it has become almost de rigueur with film producers and distributors to book the theatres months in advance to exploit special holidays. Friday is no more the release date. For example, Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger was released on Eid day which happened to be a Tuesday! The latest one being Rohit Shetty’s SRK-Deepika Padukone caper Chennai Express. Initially, the film was scheduled to be released on Eid, i.e. August 8, a Thursday. When the holy festival got postponed by a day, so did the release of the film! Producers have realised that one needs to make a quick buck i.e. within the first three days of the release or before the social networking sites, entertainment websites and the word-of-mouth publicity seals the fate of the film. It’s like this. Most filmgoers in the metro and big cities prefer watching films during the weekends as weekdays are busy and tiring. If a holiday — be it festival or national — comes during the weekday or along with weekends, theatres will certainly have more footfalls. So why wait for a Friday for release? To rake in the moolah in as short a time as possible, big producers go to the extent of offering goodies like the rights of their next film to distributors and exhibitors to block releases of any other films in their cinema halls, which might coincide with the release of their film. It is also true that many a time without asking by the producers, exhibitors decide which films they would show as they, too, prefer to cash in on the big stars and production houses.
Due to this, many a time production houses clash while many adjust depending on the interpersonal relations. Last year was the bad case of Yash Raj Films’ Jab Tak Hai Jaan clashing with Ajay Devgn’s film Son of Sardaar. Both release dates were for Diwali and there was a lot of hue and cry over the dates. Both didn’t budge but luckily both made money. This year, it was thought to be a repeat with change of parties. Red Chillies & UTV vs Balaji Films for the Eid day release. Though Eid is generally booked for a Salman Khan’s films but his film couldn’t meet the deadline the day was up for grabs. In the battle entered Chennai Express and Once upon a time in Mumbai-Doobara. Knowing Ekta Kapoor, she certainly wouldn’t have budged. But it is said that Shah Rukh Khan personally requested Jeetendra to postpone the release date by a week, and luckily for him the Independence Day holiday was just a week away. So SRK’s film gets Eid holiday and Akshay Kumar’s film gets August 15 holiday. Several times, these clashes are settled amicably by either postponing or pre-poning the release date depending upon the relationship quotient of the parties involved. For example, missing Eid, Salman wanted to release the latest film Mental near his birthday December 27. But Christmas holidays are for Aamir Khan and this year for his film Dhoom 3. So graciously Salman has postponed the release to January 26, normally the day set for Hrithik Roshan. But as the Diwali slot was falling vacant this year round, the Roshan’s have decided to release Krrish 3 on November 4. Of course, every actor doesn’t follow these rules. Ranbir Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Abhishek Bachchan are least worried about their release dates. Even the new brigade of producers like Anurag Kahsyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Shoojit Sircar may not ask for a particular festival date but will definitely prefer the release of films to coincide with some holidays — may be summer, winter or Diwali vacation. The only underlining factor is to make money!
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No
doubt, filmstars have always been a superstitious lot, and by and
large put great faith in the powers of astrology and numerology. But
the above-mentioned time table has got nothing to do with it. It is
pure business! Producers have realised that the main source of
entertainment for majority of Indians is films! No picnics, beach
parties or get-togethers. Entertainment means ‘films’ only.
