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If I am the bigger movie, I will stay
Sarita A Tanwar
DNA
Karan Johar is very clear about his stance on a film releasing the same day as his
There are many films clashing this year. As box-office history shows, when two films release together, both suffer losses. Audiences get divided and footfalls are lost. This year began with Baby and Dolly Ki Doli clashing. Neither film ended up meeting its potential because both ate into each other's business.
Recently, Karan Johar rescheduled the release of Brothers from October 2 to July 31. He thanked his friend Aditya Chopra publicly for alerting him about the holiday release date he was vacating, so KJo could take advantage of that. With producers announciing festival (Holi, Diwali, Christmas) and holiday (Republic Day, Independence Day, Gayanti Jayanti) release dates upto two years in advance, there is often a tussle on holiday dates. Often, two producers want the same date and neither backs down.
Karan Johar, an astute businessman, admits release dates are important. However, he has no such qualms. Ask him what he would do if someone else decided to release their date on the Friday he had announced for his release, he says, "It's simple. If I am the bigger movie, I will stay, and if I am the smaller movie, I will move. I have no ego about that. I don't have a problem changing my release date. My advice to any producer is: It's a commercial enterprise, if you've announced the date and there's a bigger movie that comes on the same date, run."
He further adds, "The audience doesn't know these things. Only industry does. You can't have an ego, if you want to survive. You have to kind of have an intelligent mind to understand that. What's the big deal? Just move, it's only a date. You want a date, come on a solo week. Don't clash with anybody. Do not underestimate the power of any other film. Look at the year gone by, it will tell you that all the biggies are where they were but all the middle order films that have worked are the ones that have come out of the blue and worked. Who thought 2 States would make 100 crores? Who thought a Queen would make 60? When Queen was launched, they kept changing the release date because they thought it was an underdog film but it turned out to be one of the finest films of the year.
So I say, do not underestimate any film. I do not under value any one and I do not overestimate myself and the one disease I don't have, thank God for that. I am not deluded about that. I am not as good a director as Rajkumar Hirani. I don't write as well. I am not as good looking as Farhan Akhtar, I must note. I am not as macho as Salman Khan. I certainly don't have the entrepreneurship of Mukesh Ambani. You should know what you are. But yes, I am better than many. I am a better looking than some also, I say, never lower anybody. Praise them, never criticise."
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