MUMBAI: Karan Johar did his good deed by giving Rajkumar Santoshi’s ‘Phata Poster Nikhla Hero’ a free run at the box-office after shifting the release date of his production ‘Ungli’. Both had clashing dates at 20 September.
But now the film, which stars Emraan Hashmi, Kangna Ranaut and Sanjay Dutt, is finding it hard to fix a release date.
With most releases already scheduled right up to the month of December, ‘Ungli’ is in a tight spot. To add to the woes, the films that have fixed release dates aren’t small films but huge ones, like ‘Besharam’, ‘Krrish 3’, ‘Highway’, ‘Dhoom 3’, ‘Rambo Rajkumar’, ‘Ram Leela’, among others.
Right now, two possibilities lay before ‘Ungli’. It could either wait and look for a release date in 2014, or share a release date with another film this year. However, the latter doesn’t look possible.
A source says, “’Ungli’ is an important social drama. Everybody has put in a lot of hard work in the project. The makers don’t want it to be a blink-and-miss release. The film may release early next year.”
The film, directed by Rensil D’silva, is his sophomore directorial effort after ‘Kurbaan’. Meanwhile Dharma Productions has one more release this year besides ‘Ungli’ in ‘Gori Tere Pyaar Mein’.
With so many films releasing now, it looks like it is becoming increasingly difficult to have just one film released on any particular Friday. Many films in the past few months, like ‘Chennai Express’, ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara’, ‘Satyagraha’ and those in the near future like ‘Phata Poster Nikhla Hero’, ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ have shifted their release dates up and down.
Looks like from now on, studios will have to decide release dates at least a couple years prior to stay ahead of the competition.
