The scene isn’t rosy for the film exhibition business and, resultantly, for the movies slated for release. Imagine, two major films were due for release on April 10. The release was officially announced, so were the advance bookings. But the response was so poor that even after opening the booking windows, the producers had to postpone the release by a day.
Why? Because they seemed to have realised that Eid was to be observed on April 11 and it would be more appropriate to have paid previews on the eve of the festival. The response was so poor again that the paid previews were cancelled. But what happened to Hindi film lovers? Eid, traditionally, has only added to footfalls.
Both films have a heavyweight star cast. ‘Maidaan’ features Ajay Devgn; the other release, ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’, has Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, along with Malayalam cinema’s pan-India star Prithviraj Sukumaran, in the lead.
Also Read: Akshay, Tiger ‘rise’ to ‘save the world’ in ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ trailer
It is not usual for a film to be withdrawn after the bookings are opened. There was no reason as such but there was an excuse. Oh, Eid is on the 11th, we might as well delay the release by a day! Corniest reason ever. And talking about paid previews, those were also cancelled because of audience indifference.
Anyway, paid previews have proved to be disastrous on earlier occasions. One can imagine the lack of interest in ‘Maidaan’. The film has been six years in the making and its release plans were shelved a few times before.
The other factor is that it is a film based on football, a sport that does not have a big following in the country. But what about ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’? The film saw veteran star Akshay Kumar team up with the young Tiger Shroff, with Prithiviraj added to get eyeballs in the South! At least, that should have stirred some interest!
Where does the fault lie? What happened to those Rs 500 crore+ grossers that we were promised? They were probably myths. Eid is typically a time for Salman Khan’s films, but even his last few films failed to draw the crowds despite having been released on Eid.
The Salman films did not match up to expectations, but they did manage face-saving initial collections. Now, what has emerged with these two films is that the viewers have shown total indifference. For one thing, multiplex admission rates don’t attract Eid crowds. Nor are they attractive to the others.
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