The clash is heating up, but one, which trade sources across the board are saying, that should’ve cooled down much earlier. The two big Diwali releases of this year, Kartik Aaryan led horror comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Ajay Devgn fronted action-drama Singham Again are ready to battle it out at the box office this Friday with a combined potential of day one being around Rs 100 crore all-India net.
Box office clashes aren’t new, but this Diwali, the faceoff between Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 wasn’t on cards, at least till earlier this year. When it became apparent that Rohit Shetty-helmed Singham Again won’t be completing on time, the makers pushed the film from the original release date of August 15. Back then, even Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2 was locked for the same window, but even that film moved to a December release.
For Singham Again, the next best option was the Diwali release week on November 1. The only catch? Anees Bazmee-Bhushan Kumar had already announced their film on the day. It’s at this point, as industry sources tell SCREEN, that things started to tumble, and muscles began to flex.
‘Who is the mightiest of them all?’
The year has been bad in terms of release planning– some important dates have gone vacant (like Gandhi Jayant, recently) and there have been long gaps between the release of films. What makes the Diwali clash also a puzzle is because the holiday is coming on a regular weekend, with both the films releasing on Friday. There is no “extended” weekend run up for grabs this time.
“And yet none of them have averted the clash because sensible decision making without egos was not at play. None of the film is now going to reach the true potential as it’s about who is going to be bigger than the two,” a source shared.
Veteran trade critic Taran Adarsh lashed out at the makers for making the situation worse for the exhibitors, who have had a dull year at the box office–a few blockbusters aside–and now will have to accommodate two biggies on the same day.
“It is like keeping two sweets in front of a starved exhibition sector– and they can’t eat either peacefully. What it leads to is a lot of negativity as even today the screen-sharing hasn’t been solved yet. Why get into this ugliness to begin with? It’s better to be quiet and release one of the films a week later. But who will bell the cat first?” Taran Adarsh told SCREEN.
‘Potential is of Rs 100 cr in a day’
According to an insider, the potential of Bollywood box office on November 1 is a total of Rs 100 cr nett. Out of which, in a hypothetical scenario, Singham can be at Rs 60 cr max, while Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 could be at Rs 40 cr if all shows go houseful.
But, of course, that is unlikely to happen so the best-case scenario for the both the films in the current context has changed. Singham Again, which is headlined by Ajay Devgn and Kareena Kapoor, and which features cameos like Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, would have opened at Rs 50 cr in an ideal situation, without clash. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, also starring Vidya Balan and Madhuri Dixit, would have opened at closer to Rs 30 cr.
“In the current scenario, Singham Again is looking to open around Rs 35 cr mark while Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 will be now around Rs 23-25cr on the opening day. These are good enough numbers, but the potential was there to do higher. Because had they come solo, they would have opened bigger and better even on a non-holiday,” the insider added.
Source: The Indian Express
