MUMBAI: At a time when producers and directors constantly shuffle movie release dates in order to avoid a ‘clash of the titans’, this Friday (25 May) will witness the simultaneous release of two mainstream flicks – White Feather Films’ Shootout At Lokhandwala and MAD Entertainment’s Cheeni Kum.
While the former is inspired from a real life incident, the latter appears to be a slice of life comedy films. However, Mumbai multiplexes seem to be bullish on both. What’s more, the common thread of attraction for these films is Amitabh Bachchan.
Shootout At Lokhandwala is scheduled to release with 310 prints in India, with additional digital prints and 92 prints in the overseas. Cheeni Kum will release with 180 prints in India excluding digital prints and 130 prints in the overseas.
While Sanjay Dutt, Vivek Oberoi, Abhishek Bachchan, Tushar Kapoor, Dia Mirza and Neha Dhupia star in Shootout…, Cheeni Kum stars Tabu and Paresh Rawal.
Cinemax will screen an average of eight shows per day for both films across all its properties. “Shootout has an impressive star cast but it is an adult certified film. Whereas Cheeni Kum has relatively fewer stars but is a comic film. Both films stand an equal chance at the box office,” opines Cinemax vice president marketing and programming Devang Sampat.
PVR Juhu has started its advance booking with five shows per day for both films but is planning to increase it to seven shows by tomorrow informs PVR general manager Sameer Pathak. “The response for Shootout has been relatively better than that for Cheeni Kum across Delhi and Mumbai,” informs Pathak.
G7 managing director Manoj Desai also shares a similar opinion. “Till Wednesday evening, the advance booking for Shootout has been 60 per cent and that for Cheeni Kum has been 55 per cent.”
On the other hand, Fame Multiplexes programming head Gaurav Verma has scheduled more shows for Shootout than Cheeni Kum. “It is purely because the length of Shootout… is shorter than Cheeni Kum.”
The duration of Shootout… is two hours and five minutes and that of Cheeni Kum is two hours and 20 minutes. “The difference of 15 minutes in the duration of these two films has accounted for one additional show of Shootout… across all Fame properties,” he says.
One only has to wait until Friday to see how these two films, which are pitted against each other, will fair.
