MUMBAI: Adlabs and Anubhav Sinha’s decision to postpone the release of Cash by a week due to the court case and censor certification formalities that went on till late Wednesday evening created confusion across cinemas in India. Apart from changing the publicity material of the film and facing constant queries from moviegoers, the programming for film screenings too had to be reworked.

While this may have caused inconvenience to the film’s distributor Adlabs and the cinemas as well, it has surely come as a boon to other movies like this week’s release Bow Barracks Forever produced by Pritish Nandy Communications, last week’s Partner produced by K Sera Sera and Sohail Khan Productions and older releases like Naqaab, Apne, Awarapan and even Die Hard 4.

Inox programming head Saurabh Varma says, “Partner is the biggest film of 2007, so with the delay in Cash’s release Partner will do even better now. Moreover since more bucks will be spent for Cash’s marketing now, it may also result in a better opening for the film.” Inox chain of multiplexes is also the sub-distributor for Cash and Partner in Kolkata.

Across Inox multiplexes the number of shows for Bow Barracks Forever has been increased, Naqaab was to be discontinued from this week onwards but will run for two – three shows and number of shows for Partner continues to remain the same — 10-12.

Shringar Cinemas director Aditya Shroff points out, “At Fame multiplexes we were planning to screen an average of eight – 10 shows of Cash, but now due to the delay of the film we will screen more shows of Partner. We are now screening 12-14 shows of Partner, more than its first week’s shows also. Movies like Apne, Die Hard 4 and Bow Barracks Forever will get more leeway now.”

Cash will release alongside Anil Kapoor Films Company’s Gandhi My Father, the coloured version of Dilip Kumar and Vyjayantimala starrer Naya Daur and also English animated films Surf’s Up and The Simpsons Movie. “Cash may suffer due to the umpteen choices the audience is being offered next week,” remarks Fun Cinemas general manager programming Bhumika Tiwari. At Fun too, the number of shows for Partner have been increased from eight – nine to 10 – 12 and the theatre will continue to screen Apne and Awarapan for the coming week.

With Chak De! India, Rush Hour 3 and Kaafila up for release in the following week on 10 August it may well prove to be days of firework at the box office.

Releated story:
Adlabs’ Cash release postponed to 3 August