D-Town changes release dates to avoid clash with B-Town

Understandably, there’s considerable buzz surrounding Siddharth Randeria’s upcoming Gujarati film

Natsamrat

and so, the confident makers had decided about the release date well in advance. Shared Randeria, “We had planned to release the film on August 31 and announced it way back, when no other film had announced a release date for the last week of August.” But now, with some big Bollywood releases lined up on different dates, other Gujarati filmmakers might be forced to release their films on the same day, which may have an adverse impact on the box-office performances.

BOLLYWOOD LIMITS D-TOWN’S OPTIONS/SCREENS
It’s a concern that the industry will have to grapple with on an urgent basis. Apart from Ranbir Kapoor’s latest flick that released recently, some big Bollywood releases, boasting of interesting storylines, are lined up in July and August. D-Town makers are struggling to find dates where they don’t run into a big Bollywood/Hollywood release and as a result, around three Gujarati films are slated to release around the same time in August. Said Randeria, “Coming after some big Bollywood/Hollywood releases, that day (August 31) is important because it’s a long weekend and full of festivities. If other Gujarati films choose the same date, it might be difficult to sell the content of Natsamrat along with those, as we have a limited audience for Gujarati cinema.”
Sunny Pancholi, director of

IMA Gujju

, said, “We don’t want to clash either with Gujarati or Bollywood films. Since our film has a patriotic theme, we wanted it to release on August 15. But with Akshay Kumar’s big ticket film releasing around the same time, it will be difficult for us to have an audience. We are now planning to release it either in the last week of August or first week of September.”

CASHING IN ON FESTIVITIES
While releasing regional films during festivities is a smart strategy, two or more films releasing on the same day can make them suffer at the BO. Producer Vaishal Shah said, “We plan to release our film (yet untitled, with the Chhello Divas team) either on August 24 or 31, keeping the festivities in mind. The films do quite well during long weekends. In fact, we had announced these tentative dates even before we started shooting. As people are curious about our film, we can’t hold back from releasing it after announcing the dates.”

CLASHES AREN’T COOL, SAY MAKERS
While

Dhh

did us proud by winning the National Award, viewers are still eagerly waiting for it to release commercially. Manish Saini, director of the film, says, “At times, when two films clash, a third film with a lesser budget, which isn’t even considered as competition, reaps the commercial benefits. I don’t like that happening. We aren’t releasing the film soon because we want to release it in other languages as well and we aren’t ready with the promotional strategy yet. But more than anything, I don’t want my film to clash with other Gujarati films. I believe the audience also deserves a break and not an overdose of Gujarati films.”
However, he adds, “Whether it’s the IPL, heavy rains or festivities, there’s some issue almost every week. We can’t delay releasing our films forever.” Siddharth Randeria has a possible solution, “I believe the producers from the industry should meet and discuss the release dates, so that nobody suffers in terms of BO collection.”

SURPRISE ELEMENT: THE WAY FORWARD?
Under the circumstances, opting for a surprise element is the way forward for many. Viral Rao, the director of

Family Circus

, shares, “Although our release date and strategies have been planned well, we won’t be talking much about it and not revealing the release date is part of the surprise plan. After we launched a poster of the film on Holi, people got curious and they want to watch it. All I can share is that the film is not releasing anytime in July. The release date can be in August or September.”
Will the industry find ways to avoid BO clashes? We will have to wait and watch.