Christmas 2017: Rajkumar Hirani to take on Salman Khan

The top superstar in the industry vs the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful director of the current century. The director of films like 3 Idiots, PK and the Munnabhai series, Rajkumar Hirani, has confirmed that his next film will release during the Christmas weekend this year.

In a statement, the director said “It (Sanjay Dutt biopic) goes on the floors today, January 14, and Sanju will give the clap. We are one big family. We hope to wrap it up by June and are targeting a Christmas 2017 release”

He added “It’s not a film about guns, drugs and the underworld. It’s a feel-good film about a father-son relationship with Paresh Rawal playing Sunil Dutt and Ranbir as Sanju. A buddy film with Sanju’s many friends adding up to one from the US, played by Vicky Kaushal”

It could be one of the most interesting clashes of all time, as Salman Khan has already booked the biggest weekend of the year for his keenly-awaited film ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ directed by Ali Abbas Zafar.

On star-value, there is absolutely no comparison. Salman Khan is light years ahead of Ranbir Kapoor when it comes to sheer pan-India box office pull and ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ is likely to be far more commercial too. But the factor that could tilt the clash in favour of the ‘Sanjay Dutt biopic’ is going to be content. The audience, especially at multiplexes where the ticket prices are high, do not usually spend on two films in the same week. Instead, they pick the better film.

The momentum shifts quite quickly too, like we have seen when Bajirao Mastani and Dilwale clashed at the box office during Christmas in 2015. Dilwale held a huge lead on the first day, but failed to sustain. Bajirao Mastani went from strength to strength, convincingly winning the clash by a fair margin.

The problem for ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ could be bigger, because a Rajkumar Hirani film has never failed at the box office and his films tend to be far more entertaining and commercial as compared to a Sanjay Leela Bhansali magnum opus.

However, unlike the previous two occasions when his films smashed all-time records – Hirani doesn’t have a major superstar like Aamir Khan, who lends tremendous reach to his films. This time around, he has the most promising actor from the younger generation of stars.

The power that a banner like Yash Raj Films has in distributing films cannot be ignored either, it’s their biggest film of the year, a costly one too. They are expected to go all out to make ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ the biggest film of the year.

Against any other actor or director, Salman would’ve smashed his way through. Even Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who first announced his film for Christmas, decided to keep his ‘Padmavati’ a full month away from ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’.

But Rajkumar Hirani, if in form, is in a different league altogether.

Update: To add one more point, budget-wise the clash will heavily be in favour of the ‘Dutt Biopic’. ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ will be one of the costliest films of the year.