Friday face-off

A two-week long lull at the box-office with no significant releases is just the calm before the entertainment storm that will be unleashed by the two Diwali releases. Golmaal 3,part of Rohit Shetty’s successful comedy trilogy will be competing against Vipul Shah’s comedy film Action Replayy. Golmaal 3 is a multi-starrer with Ajay Devgn,Kareena Kapoor,Tusshar Kapoor,Arshad Warsi,Shreyas Talpade and Kunal Khemu; Action Replayy,on the other hand,has the advantage of two Bollywood biggies — Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan and Akshay Kumar. To make this face-off interesting,both the production houses are leaving no stone unturned to rake in box-office gold with their ventures.

Such a Bollywood battle is not a 2010 phenomenon; it’s an annual Diwali tradition. In 2007,Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s dream project Saawariya and Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om were pitted against each other. The battle raged again in 2008 with the release of Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion,Shetty’s Golmaal Returns and Sanjay Dutt-starrer EMI. In 2009,Shetty’s All the Best,Sohail Khan’s Main aur Mrs Khanna and multi-crore film Blue made their presence felt. Even though Saawariya,Blue,EMI and Main aur Mrs Khanna were eventually declared flops,they did manage to make money during the Diwali weekend.

The festive spirit apart,it’s mostly a commercial decision to vie for a Diwali date. “Diwali is that time of the year when spending capacity is high — people want to go out and watch films,” says Taran Adarsh,trade analyst. Producer Sajid Nadiadwala,who released Jaan-E-Mann during Diwali in 2006,agrees. “Every filmmaker wants a good week and Diwali time is perfect because the audience’s expenditure quota is high. Eid and Christmas are good times for film releases as well — Salman Khan’s Dabangg released on Eid and is this year’s biggest hit so far,” he says. So it’s not just Diwali anymore. Actress Amrita Rao adds,“Now,filmmakers capitalise on every festival— with Ghajini and 3 Idiots,Aamir Khan started the Christmas blockbuster trend. Even Valentine’s Day hasn’t been spared.”