Generally, for any big budget movie we usually see the week after the release is usually empty. For instance, there was no release at all last week since a week before that, the much-awaited Sanju had hit screens and earlier when Race 3 was released during the EID weekend. But the last two months of any year, this rules is not followed. This year as the Bollywood calendar of release indicates, there will be seven big-budget movies releasing almost back to back in Nov & Dec. This was known even before but now with India’s biggest film 2.0 announcing its date as November 29, the scenario has become quite ugly.
The period of madness will begin on Diwali day when Thugs Of Hindostan will release on Wednesday, November 7. Starring Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh, this period action entertainer promises to be high on the scale, action, and entertainment. Aamir has a lot of credibilities and enjoys the trust of the audience. As a result, it is expected to perform very well at the box office. The week after that won’t see a release. But on November 23, Tiger Shroff and Karan Johar’s first collaboration would be out, Student Of The Year 2. This time, he’s paired with two newbie hotties – Ananya Panday and Tara Sutaria. Tiger has gone on another level with his last film, Baaghi 2. Student Of The Year 2 would definitely get the advantage of the Baaghi 2 factor.
The last weekend of November is when the big clash will take place. The long-in-the-making 2.0, the sequel to the 2010 hit Robot, will be out. Starring Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson, it is touted as India’s most expensive film. The VFX and action should be top-class and hence, it has chances to be the biggest grosser of the year. The other release of that week would be Kedarnath, which also has been delayed and faced numerous issues. It stars Sushant Singh Rajput in the male lead and the female lead is by debutant Sara Ali Khan. This movie is also mounted on a big scale. But a clash with 2.0 would prove detrimental to its box office prospects. It remains to be seen if the makers change the release date or stay put.
December would begin on a fun note with the release of Total Dhamaal. It is the third part of the Dhamaal franchise but this time, the series has undergone a bit of a change. Sanjay Dutt and Ashish Chowdhry are missing. Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaaferi, and Riteish Deshmukh are back and they are joined by Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, and Anil Kapoor! The star cast is exciting and if the film turns out to be a fun-filled, clean comic caper, it can emerge as a huge success, even grossing Rs 100 crore. December 14 is empty as of now and on December 21, Shah Rukh Khan would finally unveil his ambitious project Zero. Co-starring Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma and Salman Khan in a special appearance, the film has already generated excitement thanks to SRK’s dwarf avatar, the song with Salman and the entertainment quotient. It’s a film that can bring back the respect for Shah Rukh which he lost with the colossal debacle of Jab Harry Met Sejal.
Finally, December 28 will see the release of Simmba, Ranveer Singh’s massiest film till date. Directed by Rohit Shetty, this flick should have the crazy fun moments of Shetty’s Golmaal series as well as some hard-hitting, intense sequences a la Singham.
All these films have the potential to be huge grossers. But with so many of them releasing in such a short period of time, they can eat into each other’s business. It remains to be seen if this arrangement would remain or whether better sense would prevail and the film’s releases would be postponed.