Fitoor' vs 'Sanam Re' clash to keep UTV Motion Pictures and Bahar Ente

"Fitoor," starring Aditya Roy Kapur and Katrina Kaif, will be clashing with "Sanam Re," featuring Pulkit Samrat and Yami Gautam, at the box office on 12 February, making it a keenly-watched contest in the collection sweepstakes.

While "Fitoor" is being presented by UTV Motion Pictures and Guy in the Sky Pictures, "Sanam Re" is being released by a lesser-known banner, Bahar Enterprises.

The stakes are high for the Katrina-Aditya Roy-Tabu starrer "Fitoor," given its budget of Rs 45 crore, almost twice that of "Sanam Re" directed by Divya Khosla Kumar.

"Fitoor," directed by Siddharth Roy Kapoor and produced by Abhishek Kapoor, was in the news a few days ago over remuneration of Rs 4 crore each paid to the lead actors Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapur, though UTV dismissed it.

"The speculative remuneration quoted by a journalist in a respectable daily today is totally baseless and factually incorrect," a UTV spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday, reported IANS.

The 129-minute film is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel "Great Expectations."

The buzz about "Fitoor" is apparently high because of a rumoured split between Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor, apart from the fact that it also being promoted by Salman Khan.

"Fitoor" is expected to do a business of about Rs 10 crore on its opening day, according to a post re-tweeted by trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

On the other hand, "Sanam Re" is relatively low on hype and yet expected to do well at the box office.

"Sanam Re would be much easier to succeed at the Box Office. Its stars were paid a relatively small amount. The director Divya Khosla Kumar had a successful film Yaariyaan in 2014. She knows how to connect with the youngsters," said a trade analyst.

The clash is reminiscent of the "Airlift" vs "Kya Kool Hai Hum 3 " clash on 22 January. Akshay Kumar-Nimrat Kaur starrer "Airlift" overtook "Kya Kool Hai Hum 3" in box office collections.

"Airlift" did a total business of Rs 122.65 crore in three weeks in India, according to Adarsh.

Though the box office collection figures sound impressive, they are not reflecting in the financials of film distributors, such as Eros International Media, which reported decline in revenues and net profit for the third quarter ended December 2015.