The audience in South India will have lots to look forward to apart from Shahrukh Khan’s Happy New Year which releases on 24th October. Two Tamil films are scheduled to release during the favourable Diwali period and one of them is the most awaited film in Tamilnadu – Vijay’s controversial film Kaththi directed by A.R. Murugadoss.
Watch the trailer of Kaththi below. A typical south Indian masala film from the director of Hindi films like Ghajini and Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. (article continued after the trailer)
The other release in the South is Vishal’s Poojai also starring Shruthi Hassan. Interestingly, both the Tamil films release two days before Happy New Year on 22nd October (tomorrow). The reason for the Wednesday release is simple, in most parts of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka and others, the Diwali holidays begin on Wednesday and continue through the weekend until Sunday. Most schools and colleges are shut, which makes the release date perfect.
On the other hand, Shahrukh Khan has decided to release his film a day after Diwali puja (Oct 24) with an eye on opening day records. In the last three years, the Diwali pooja day hasn’t been too bad for business, but opening records are impossible to achieve because the family audience is busy with Diwali festivities and the occupancy, especially in North India, tend to be poor.
Apart from the two Tamil films which are certain to affect business in South India, Happy New Year will also be competing against a smaller film in Telugu titled Karthikeya.
Back home in Bollywood, not many can dare release their films against a Shahrukh Khan starrer, can they? Historically, not many have survived a SRK clash, which is why Rekha’s comeback film ‘Super Nani’ was postponed by a week, a couple of Hollywood films have also been postponed by their distributors in India and only a small film Kabab Mein Haddi is releasing alongside Happy New Year.