Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki distributors refuse to share screen space with Prabhas’ Salaar: Box office battle sees action behind the scenes
Big box office battles often take place before opening day, behind closed doors and over a few tough phone calls. The current situation is no different, as the big releases of Christmas, Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki and Prabhas’ Salaar, are battling it out to get the best picture and show.
The social comedy Dunki is directed by Rajkumar Hirani and will release on Thursday, December 21. A day later, KGF director Prashanth Neel Salaar’s action drama will hit the screens worldwide. Led by two big stars and arriving at the end of the Christmas season means showing confusion for the show, especially the owners of the pictures that are in the planning stage.
Fight the game together
A trade insider told Indianexpress.com that Dunki’s team has given a clear statement that they do not want to share the screen with Salaar. “The clause says, give us all four shows, or give us nothing. And if you don’t, then we will see action in the future with other films. Dunki is being distributed by Pen Marudhar while Salaar is being released by Anil Thadani’s AA Films.
The source shared that each distributor will try to give their best for the show but added that in the end the Dunki team will not get what they want. “The Dunki team’s thinking is that they were the first to advertise, so they should be ahead, and on top of that, Shah Rukh is coming up with two Rs 500 cr films. They are definitely going to give a great show.”
According to insiders, AA Films is a good show to share because Salaar is a big film and needs a single-frame pull. “They are fine with two shows out of four. The offer is, the prime time show (6.30 PM and 9.30 PM) will go to Salaar, one to Dunki, the other two (12.30 PM and 3.30 PM) can be chosen by the showrunners. So from now on , small screens have opened bookings only on Thursday, because the exhibitors have not yet decided how to play in this matter.”
Damage
Raj Bansal, executive producer and producer, said that in North India, Dunki will get more theaters because of Shah Rukh and in the south, Salaar will lead because of Prabhas. Bansal said that all the distributors in this regard are big and have a good supply chain. “Individuals can choose Salaar, but sometimes they go with Dunki because of their relationship with their distributors. It’s a tough battle for single-player and stand-alone movies.”
Bansal explained the story and said that if it has two screens in North India, one film will get five screens and the other three screens. Because Dunki is released on Thursday, it will get all the videos on Thursday.
“When a new movie arrives on Friday, then there will be a drop and it happens all the time. The issue is being solved as we speak. Usually if the multiplex has three screens, it divides one of the two screens for each movie, open a little further and say let’s continue talking about the show. This happens with every controversy. In the end the winner is the film that is well received. If a film has a few screenings but is very popular, its number increases,” he added.
Multiplex division is the opening day
According to trade sources, the minimum exposure will be 50 percent for Dunki, 35 percent for Salaar and 15 percent for Aquaman, Animal and Sam Bahadur.
“Dunki will lead the north Indian market, both in single format and multiplexes. In single format, it will be on a case-by-case basis depending on the equation shared by the exhibitors and distributors. At the Indian level, exposure will favor Dunki,” said an industry source.
Dunki, unlike Shah Rukh Khan’s previous two films Pathaan and Jawan, is not being released in popular languages. Salaar will have a pan-India release in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam.
“South is another ball game. Some places are showing Hindi movies, some are only Tamil and Telugu. The latter will only show Salaar, but the former will see Dunki showing well along with Salaar. The conflict is in North India,” said a source.
While distributors and exhibitors are still fighting for the best show, according to the advance booking status, trade sources said Dunki is aiming to be the biggest opening of Rajkumar Hirani’s film at Rs 40 cr. His last release, the Ranbir Kapoor starrer Sanju, opened at Rs 34 cr. Salaar Hindi is targeting an opening between Rs 17-18 cr.
