Bollywood versus Hollywood this Diwali

MUMBAI: While Bollywood is going to town with the hype and promotions around the two upcoming film releases on 20 October; Hollywood is also ‘animatedly’ ready to release two biggies this festive season.

On 20 October, Farhan Akhtar’s Don and Saajid Nadiadwala’s Jann-E-Mann will release alongside Open Season and The Ant Bully from Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Brothers respectively.

While Don stars Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal and Isha Koppikar; Jaan-E-Mann stars Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta. Open Season and The Ant Bully, on the other hand are animation films.

The question here is – Will these animated characters get enough space to breathe alongside the Khans of Bollywood?

“Why not?” says Sony Pictures Releasing of India head PR and acquisitions Vikramjit Roy. “Since Open Season is an animated film, our target audience is kids, unlike Jaan-e-Mann and Don, which are primarily targeted at the youth. Although the multiplexes are booked with the multiple screenings of these films, they do realize the importance of an audience for animated Hollywood films. So we have been given our space to serve our niche. Besides, this is the festive holiday season, which is the best time to release films for kids,” Roy adds.

According to industry sources, Warner Brothers’ The Ant Bully is releasing all over India with 25 prints. The movie was released in the US on 28 July, 2006 and did business worth $25 million at the box office.

On the other hand, Open Season opened at the number one position and did a business of $23.6 million in its first week and an overall business of $65 million.

“Open Season is Sony Pictures’ eleventh film to open at number one position at US box office in 2006 and the tenth film to have opened above $20 million mark. So such collections of the film have further boosted us to have a Diwali /Eid release in India,” says Roy.

On one hand where Bollywood films have marketed themselves aggressively to grab the audiences’ attention, Hollywood films are not far behind. Warner Brothers has tied up with Pogo and Cartoon Network for The Ant Bully ad campaigns. They have also tied up with HBO to give two free tickets to Movieworld Australia.

Sony Pictures has tied up with Sanctuary Asia magazine to promote the subject of the film, which is broadly based on environmental issues. Booproo chewing gum brand has also tied up with Open Season and its commercials are on Toon Disney, Disney, Hungama, HBO and Star TV. Contests, activities, P.O.S. and free tickets are also being given away. Open Season is also releasing at Imax Adlabs in the Imax format, which will be screened at its dome theatres.

It’s truly Bollywood versus Hollywood this festive season!

Related story:

Sony’s Open Season ties up with Sanctuary