In a recent interview to thequint.com, Rakesh Roshan the producer of the film Kaabil and father of its star Hrithik Roshan, said that “After 50 years in the industry, I feel deeply isolated and unable to play the games that are being played.”  

Both films were aiming for the Indian Republic Day long-weekend holidays. The Roshans had of course announced their release dates in advance but due to unforeseen circumstances, Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani and Shah Rukh Khan, producers of Raees, felt they didn’t have any choice but to release their film on the same day. “But there was no other date yaar! I tried to shift it around,” explained Shah Rukh in one of the many pre-release interviews of Raees.

Speaking to Icon, many film distributors and trade analysts agreed that such clashes cannibalize each other’s earnings. “Film business has come down to the booty collection in the first weekend of the release,” says Bharat Chaturvedi, Mumbai’s distribution manager of PVR Pictures. “How the film pans later is a bonus.”

“Keeping personal egos aside, producers with big stakes should try to release films on different dates,” explains Vinay Choksey of VIP movies. “The industry and the theatre owners won’t suffer but individuals like producers, distributors do get affected.”

The clash between Raees and Kaabil is being touted as the biggest of them all

Some of the major clashes that took place earlier include Sholay with Jai Santoshi Maa, Gadar with Lagaan, Om Shanti Om with Saawariya, Aitraaz with Veer Zaara, Welcome with Taare Zameen Par, Jab Tak Hain Jaan with Son of Sardar, Bang Bang with Haider and Rustom with Mohenjodaro among others.

Shyam Shroff of Shringar Films, one of the biggest film distributors in India adds: “Earlier too films’ release dates clashed. But now the media has become very strong and aggressive. It reports day-to-day developments that makes this clash look larger than life. And a weak film, however strong the banner or actors, will lose.”

Veteran film-trade analyst Amar Solanki recalls that even during the days of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Dharmendra, Rajinder Kumar, Shammi Kapoor and as late as the days of Amitabh Bachchan, film release dates clashed. “But then there was a strong interpersonal bond amongst the film fraternity,” reminisces Solanki. “Three to four films releasing together on a Diwali or Janmasthami day were the norm of the times and no one complained. Everyone enjoyed the loot and success of each other. There was a beautiful camaraderie among the entire fraternity. There was an understanding even with the Mumbai theatre owners. For instance, a Raj Kapoor film would release only in Maratha Mandir, V. Shantaram’s film in Plaza theatre, Dev Anand film would release in Novelty theatre, so on and so forth. There was certainly no eating into each other’s business!”

Another factor that helped everlasting friendship in the earlier days was that there were only single-screen theatres and no corporate had joined in the business of films. So films enjoyed silver jubilee (25 weeks), golden jubilee (50 weeks) or even platinum jubilee (75 weeks) runs. This made it possible for people who couldn’t watch the film in the first week to watch the film the next or the week after without the fear that the film would be taken off. But today, within one or two weeks films are removed from the theatre to make way for the next big one.  

“Today a big film is released simultaneously in thousands of screens,” explains Subhash Chedda, Mumbai-based film archiver and information trove of films and film personalities. “In India Raees was shown in over 3,600 screens and Kaabil in over 2,600. More screens mean more earnings in the first weekend. After the first Sunday the fate of the film hangs on the word-of-mouth report of the viewers. But the moolah is raked in the first three days itself!”

This fierce competition, with the stakes this high, is taking its toll on age-old friendships. When Shah Rukh Khan’s Om Shanti Om released with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya, it was alleged that things turned sour between the two. They had earlier worked together on Devdaas. Yash Raj Films’ Jab Tak Hai Jaan released along with Ajay Devgan’s Son of Sardar. It was reported that they too fell apart. In fact Devgan reported Yash Raj Films to the Competition Commission of India for unfair allocation of screen numbers. The worst (reported) fallout was that of Karan Johar and Kajol who had been ‘best friends’ for years after Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil released along with Devgan’s Shivaay.

Exorbitant pre-release promotion budgets of nearly INR 200 million to INR 300 million make changing release dates at the last minute positively expensive.

Hopefully, the latest clash won’t affect the bonhomie of the Roshans and SRK, who has worked under the former’s banner in films such as Koyla, Karan Arjun and King Uncle. At the end of the day, the basic issue is this: accommodating nearly 700 films from the Indian film industry within just the 52 weeks of the year is nearly impossible.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine February 5th, 2017