'Salaar Part 1: Ceasefire' starring Prabhas and Shah Rukh Khan's 'Dunki' are locking horns at the box office. While Prashanth Neel's directorial is releasing on December 22, Rajkumar Hirani's film will hit the screens on December 21. Also, Jason Momoa starrer 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' will release in India on December 21. So, three major films are clashing at the theatres. 'Salaar' producer Vijay Kiragandur who heads Hombale Films opened up on the biggest clash of the year
He told Bollywood Hungama, "We don’t want things to be ugly. We are already having meetings with the exhibitors and distributors. When we have a solo release, the occupancy generally will be around 60-70%. Some screens will go to Aquaman but between Salaar and Dunki, we hope to get 50-50 screens in the best scenario. In such a scenario, if an occupancy of 90-100% is achieved, it’ll be a good result for both films''.
He added, "Even if we get more screens, the occupancy will anyway go down to 60% or 70%. What we are planning is that we should get more occupancy, even if we get fewer screens than what we would have got if Salaar was a solo release. Even Overseas, these discussions are going on. Programming is the key now and that’s what we are focusing on, without getting into ugly fights''.
It is to be noted that in 2018, SRK's 'Zero' faced tough competition with Yash starrer Prashanth Neel's directorial 'KGF Chapter 1'. Both films released on December 21. The former was a damp squib while the latter broke several records at the ticket windows.
Let's see how 'Dunki' and 'Salaar' perform at the box office. Meanwhile, casting director Mukesh Chhabra has predicted record-breaking success for 'Dunki'.
