Animal, Dream Girl 2, Fukrey 3, Bollywood plays musical chairs of release dates

A host of biggies have seen a postponement in their releases this year. Why is this happening, and will it lead to a domino effect on other films? We find out.

2023 is turning out to be quite an eventful year for Hindi cinema. From a variety of films luring audiences back to cinemas, to ticket pricing strategies being used as tricks- the industry is on it’s toes with dogged determination.

Posters of Animal, Fukrey 3, and a still from the teaser of Dream Girl 2.

Maybe this is why nobody is willing to take chances with either their product, or even the correct release date. In the past two months itself, a host of biggies have been postponed to later dates. This constant reshuffling: why is this happening, and what’s the long term impact on other films already scheduled on certain dates?

FILM--ORIGINAL DATE--NEW DATE

Animal - August 11- December 1

Fukrey 3- November 24- December 1

Jawaan- June 2- September 7

Yodha- July 7- December 15

Dream Girl 2- July 7- August 25

Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal is among the most anticipated releases of the year. Despite releasing a pre-teaser, the film has been shifted from August 11 to December 1. Murad Khetani, co producer of the film, tells us, “It’s the same reason our director mentioned in the video that was released on social media by us all yesterday. We want to give a great end product to the audience and we don’t want to take away from our director’s eventual vision.”

Two’s a party, three’s a crowd- December 1 also has Fukrey 3 and Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur up for a release. And Ronnie Screwvala, producer of the latter, is in no mood to change the date. “Our date was already announced. It’s the content which works today, it is not about the opening on a Friday, audiences can decide,” he tells us.

MORE SHIFTS IN THE OFFING

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh also predicts that more films are going to get postponed, because of Animal being shifted. “Whenever a big films gets postponed- like Adipurush was at the start of the year from January to June, and now Jawaan, all other films lined up for release in the month get automatically shifted, they have no other choice,” he reasons.

Khetani adds that the industry has barely recovered from the Covid pandemic, and there are more shifts bound to happen, “The after effects are still a major factor in figuring out the release of a film. The other issue that filmmakers have is to get the film ready with a certain standard be it in VFX or sound or post-production. Hence a lot of dates have moved in this year and I’m sure that’s going to be the case for many movies still.”

THEATRES REACT

How do theatres handle this date change, considering they have to chalk out show timings for multiple films, accordingly? A multiplex representative shares that such shifts depict that there is ample supply of good quantity content, “These shifts are not a concern at all. It makes it possible for audiences to enjoy a wider range of movies over a longer period of time, instead of facing the situation where they have to make a choice. It also allows more audience to enjoy a movie. This, in a way is good for the industry as well for the consumers,” he says, not wishing to be named. But a stark contrast is echoed by Manoj Desai, executive director, G7 Multiplex and Maratha Mandir cinema, “Humein bauhaut takleef hoti hai, jab release dates change hoti hain. We don’t have any other films then at that moment to screen when something gets postponed.”