The long lull at the box office induced by the cricket fever will soon be over, thanks to a string of Bollywood films lined up for release over the next few weeks.
The long lull at the box office induced by the cricket fever will soon be over, thanks to a string of Bollywood films lined up for release over the next few weeks. “More than a dozen small to medium budget movies, with a collective production and marketing budget of Rs200 crore, are slated to be released in April,” estimates trade consultant Amod Mehra.
Filmmakers, who had postponed the release of their movies because of the World Cup, are willing to take a chance during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season which begins on April 8. “We released our film on April 1, a day before the World Cup final, hoping that the audiences would be done watching one game and would be ready for the next,” says Abhinay Deo, the director of Game. The film’s initial release date of March 18 was deferred to April 1 keeping the World Cup mania in mind. Other big-budget films to be released in April include Thank You and Dum Maaro Dum.
The cricket and examination season is traditionally considered to be a bad time for film releases. However, Bollywood biggies are confident of grabbing eyeballs despite the forthcoming IPL tournament. “We have 1.2 billion people in the country and everybody is not going to watch cricket. Even if half of them watch cricket, the other half would come and watch our movie, which is more than enough for us,” says Abhishek Bachchan, the lead actor of Game.
Industry insiders feel that there is a huge interest in stepping out and watching films now that the World Cup is over. “Big-budget films will be releasing after a drought of nearly 40 days and will surely provide a welcome change to audiences after the cricket season,” says Rohan Sippy, director of Dum Maaro Dum which releases on April 22.
Anees Bazmee, the director of Thank You which releases on April 8, feels that there is room for both cricket and Bollywood to co-exist. “Since the World Cup and the examinations will be over by the time our film hits cinema halls, we will only be competing against the IPL tournament,”agrees Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios India, the producers of Dum Maaro Dum. “And we are confident that the youth will be able to divide its time equally between cricket and movies.”
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