Bollywood Friday wars to take on new dimension in 2013

Bollywood Friday wars to take
on new dimension in 2013
Jan 2, 2013, 12.00AM IST TNN [
Meena Iyer ]
There are only
52 Fridays in a
calendar year
and of course,
the Big Daddies
of Bollywood
have been staking their claim to
the most favourable ones — for
example, Eid, Diwali, Christmas,
pre-Indian Premier League (IPL),
post-IPL, etc — well in advance,
marking their territories, so to
say. So, what happened this past
Diwali — when Ajay Devgn
clashed with Shah Rukh Khan —
is likely to happen throughout
2013 as well.
The year has barely begun and
the trade is already sitting back
to watch the inevitable clashes
that will occur on 'chosen'
Fridays. Filmmaker Sajid Khan
says, "Now, before you
announce the start of your film's
shoot, you must announce its
release date. Like I announced
on the day I began my shoot
that Himmatwala would come
on March 29."
Rakesh Roshan is coming on
Diwali, November 1, with Krrish
3, Aamir Khan will bring Dhoom
3 on Christmas and Akshay
Kumar had announced earlier
that he will come on Ramzan Eid
(August 8) with Once Upon A
Time In Mumbaai Again. "Till a
few months ago, this was
considered a healthy practice,"
says a leading film distributor,
adding, "When a filmmaker
announces his release date in
advance, it makes it simpler for
others to plan their release
strategies."
Frankly, the distributor has not
taken the superstar ego into
account here. What is likely to
happen is, instead of being
good Samaritans and allowing
their colleagues to get decent
numbers at the box office, stars
may decide to take each other
on.
Currently, it seems like Salman
Khan and his youngest brother
Sohail Khan will take on Akshay
and Milan Luthria on Ramzan-
Eid. Rohit Shetty is likely to
release his Chennai Express on
October 11, the same day as
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Ram
Leela. Sunny Deol's Yamla Pagla
Deewana 2 will come on June 7,
the same date as Prabhudheva's
Ramaiya Vastavaiya that has
newbies Girish Taurani and
Shruti Haasan in the lead.
Apoorva Lakhia's Zanjeer will
clash with Rohan Sippy's
Nautanki Saala. Subhash Ghai
intends to take on Prakash Jha's
Satyagraha — it stars Amitabh
Bachchan, Ajay Devgn and
Kareena Kapoor — with his film
Kaanchi.
Rival film corporations have no
qualms about taking on each
other. So, ABCD Any Body Can
Dance will come on February 8
with Special 26. Ironically, ABCD
has Prabhudheva, the director of
Rowdy Rathore (RR) in the lead
role, while Special 26 has
Akshay. On a normal day, Prabhu
and Akki, who are very close,
would never have thought of
taking on each other at the box
office. However, when it comes
to zeroing in on that elusive
Friday, all is fair in the box-office
war. A trade paper reports that I,
Me Aur Main... will take on The
Attacks of 26/11 on March 1.
Meanwhile, Akshay's Naam Hai
Boss is expected to clash with
Ranbir Kapoor's Yeh Jawaani Hai
Deewani. Let's see who blinks
first.

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