Article by Indicine reader Adnan (read the disclaimer at the bottom of the article)
About 10-14 days ago, Shah Rukh Khan announced the release date of his ‘dwarf’ film. He took the biggest weekend of 2018 – Christmas. This was a refreshing strategy from his side as he generally announces release dates, after his film goes on floor. Obviously, Christmas also raises an ‘Aamir Khan film release’ question which was then cleared when Aamir took Diwali for his film ‘Thugs Of Hindostan’ with Yash Raj Films.
Suddenly, there comes an unexpected announcement. Rakesh Roshan announces Krrish 4 for the same weekend i.e Christmas 2018. Almost the entire world was aware that Shah Rukh had taken Christmas (which is more than 2 years in advance) for his film. This decision from Roshan who’s an experienced producer / director does sound like strategising.
Was this clash planned or was it just coincidental?
The reason could well be the other big clash between Shah Rukh and Hrithik, scheduled to take place during the Republic Day next year.
Earlier this year in January, the Roshans had announced the Sanjay Gupta directed ‘Kaabil’ as the first big release of 2017, a date which was initially occupied by Ajay Devgn’s ‘Baadshaho’. A few month later, in May, Shah Rukh averted the clash with Salman Khan’s Sultan and pushed his film to Republic Day 2017. This announcement not just angered Rakesh Roshan but also resulted in him immediately releasing the first poster of Kaabil, thereby intensifying the clash further.
After continuous meetings between both Shah Rukh and Roshan Sr. nothing changed and the clash is still on.
The Roshans are definitely upset by the fact that Shah Rukh is releasing his film on a date which was already announced by them well in advance .
Now the same thing is happening with SRK – this time he announced his release date almost 2.5 years in advance – before anyone else could – and Filmkraft announcing their film for the same day just a few days after SRK’s announcement, brings up certain questions.
There are reports that Krrish 4 was announced without a proper script in place, so was the reason for locking horns only so that they could indirectly put pressure on Raees to move to another date?
Now if a clash like this happens, it will be a heavy one with both films costing upwards of 300 crores. It will almost be impossible for both films to make profits.
But monetary-wise, both Krrish and Aanand L Rai’s dwarf film will suffer and so will their stardom, especially for SRK as both his contemporaries Aamir, Salman are doing so well.
Having said that, Christmas 2018 is a long away and anything could happen in between. But for Shah Rukh or Hrithik to have an upper hand, the success of Raees or Kaabil is very crucial as both their previous releases (Fan and Mohenjo Daro) bombed at the box office.
Disclaimer: IndiCine does not take responsibility for opinions or views expressed by the writer. The article does not echo our opinion of the issue.