Kaminey's delay in Mumbai will not hit revenue, says UTV

UTV Software Communications, producer of Kaminey, today said the delay in the film's release in Mumbai will not affect the company's quarterly earnings figures.

Kaminey, directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, will release only by Sunday or Monday in Mumbai, thanks to the swine-flu scare. "The release in Mumbai only [sic] will be delayed to what we expect to be this weekend, either Sunday or Monday, depending on the state's promulgation," UTV Software Communications said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

UTV Motion Pictures, an arm of the company, is going ahead with the release of the film starring Shahid Kapur and Priyanka Chopra across the country and worldwide on Friday, but it will be released in Mumbai and its suburbs as well as in Pune later.

The decision comes after the Maharashtra government's directive to close down theatres in these areas for three days as a preventive measure to curb the spread of swine flu.

According to the company, the Mumbai region accounts for 10-15% of the total theatrical revenue share. "Our scheduled release this weekend of the movie Kaminey will proceed as planned all over the world with approximately 1,200 prints," it said.

The films division's "overall quarterly performance would not be affected as we have already pre-sold and earned on our release Agyaat and in September, too, we have two more releases lined up," UTV said.