Festive rush!
With more than moolah at stake, the race for festival release dates has intensified in Bollywood
Release dates have always been rather crucial for films in Bollywood calendar. But with the war hotting up between the B-Town biggies, there's much more at the stake than just the moolah now. And the filmmakers' race to get the best release dates (read: festival release) for their films have intensified that much more. So much so, that often the period between the post production of the film and the release date is sometimes as less as six to seven days, just so the film not miss the 'big date'. What's more, to avoid clashes or last minute date changes, several stars have recently been known to go out of their way to seek favours from friends too. So much so that the Eid, Diwali and Christmas dates for as far as 2012 and even 2013 have roughly been blocked already.
Quite unlike yesteryears, when veteran actor Dharmendra recalls that several films would release on the same day. "We were quite a secure bunch and no one ever played around with each other's release dates. Good films do well irrespective of when they are released."
While trade analysts do agree that 'good films will always find takers,' they point out that the importance of release dates has increased manifold over the past few years. "We can't emphasise the importance of these dates enough. Everyone knows that Bodyguard didn't have too much time between post-production and actual release, but the filmmakers didn't want to miss the festive weekend and did a good thing by not changing the release date. The festive period anyways ensures more footfalls than any other time," says a distributor. "Take any blockbuster in the past few years and it's no co-incidence that they have been released around some festival. The rush is always on to get the festive release dates for the biggies. So, this year Bodyguard was booked for Eid and Ra.One is for Diwali, while Don 2 is for Christmas. Even the stars avoid clashes around this time, because it would naturally eat into each other's business and reflect in the BO figures," explains trade analyst Taran Adarsh, insisting that it's a wise move on the part of the filmmakers.
Keeping this in mind, the next year's line-up is already being booked as well. Actor Salman Khan pushed his Ek Tha Tiger to Eid to make way for friend, actor-filmmaker Aamir Khan's Dhuan. Aamir meanwhile, repaid Salman's favour by pushing his own Dhoom 3 to 2013, and made way for Salman's Dabangg 2 in Christmas of 2012. "Stars often willingly accommodate dates for each other and it works in favour of all.
Of course, these stars have big egoes, but when it comes to making money at the BO, there's no point in making these ego issues let the revenues suffer. At the end of the day, money is what matters here," points out a veteran filmmaker.
With more than moolah at stake, the race for festival release dates has intensified in Bollywood
Release dates have always been rather crucial for films in Bollywood calendar. But with the war hotting up between the B-Town biggies, there's much more at the stake than just the moolah now. And the filmmakers' race to get the best release dates (read: festival release) for their films have intensified that much more. So much so, that often the period between the post production of the film and the release date is sometimes as less as six to seven days, just so the film not miss the 'big date'. What's more, to avoid clashes or last minute date changes, several stars have recently been known to go out of their way to seek favours from friends too. So much so that the Eid, Diwali and Christmas dates for as far as 2012 and even 2013 have roughly been blocked already.
Quite unlike yesteryears, when veteran actor Dharmendra recalls that several films would release on the same day. "We were quite a secure bunch and no one ever played around with each other's release dates. Good films do well irrespective of when they are released."
While trade analysts do agree that 'good films will always find takers,' they point out that the importance of release dates has increased manifold over the past few years. "We can't emphasise the importance of these dates enough. Everyone knows that Bodyguard didn't have too much time between post-production and actual release, but the filmmakers didn't want to miss the festive weekend and did a good thing by not changing the release date. The festive period anyways ensures more footfalls than any other time," says a distributor. "Take any blockbuster in the past few years and it's no co-incidence that they have been released around some festival. The rush is always on to get the festive release dates for the biggies. So, this year Bodyguard was booked for Eid and Ra.One is for Diwali, while Don 2 is for Christmas. Even the stars avoid clashes around this time, because it would naturally eat into each other's business and reflect in the BO figures," explains trade analyst Taran Adarsh, insisting that it's a wise move on the part of the filmmakers.
Keeping this in mind, the next year's line-up is already being booked as well. Actor Salman Khan pushed his Ek Tha Tiger to Eid to make way for friend, actor-filmmaker Aamir Khan's Dhuan. Aamir meanwhile, repaid Salman's favour by pushing his own Dhoom 3 to 2013, and made way for Salman's Dabangg 2 in Christmas of 2012. "Stars often willingly accommodate dates for each other and it works in favour of all.
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