Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki distributors refuse to share screens with Prabhas’ Salaar: Box office battle sees intense behind-the-scenes action

Fight for single screen

A trade source told Indianexpress.com that Dunki team has given out a clear-cut clause that they don’t want to share the screen with Salaar. “The clause says, either give us all four shows, or don’t give any. And if you don’t give us, then we will also see what to do in 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 every distributor will try to give their best for showcasing but added that eventually Dunki team won’t get what they want. “Dunki team’s point of view is that they were the first to announce, so they deserve priority, and on top of that, Shah Rukh is coming with two Rs 500 cr films. They will of course go all out to give it the best possible showcasing.”

According to insiders, AA Films is fine sharing shows because Salaar is a massy film and they need the pull of single screens. “They are ok with two shows each out of four. The offer is, one prime time show (6.30 PM and 9.30 PM) will go to Salaar, one to Dunki, the rest two (12.30 PM and 3.30 PM) can be decided by the exhibitors.  So as of now, single screens have opened booking only for Thursday, because exhibitors are yet to decide how to play around this scenario.”

The breakdown

Raj Bansal, senior distributor and exhibitor, said in North India, Dunki will get more cinemas because of Shah Rukh and in South, Salaar will take the lead because of Prabhas. Bansal said both the distributors in this case are big and have a good supply chain. “Single screens would normally opt for Salaar, but in certain cases they will go with Dunki because of their relations with the distributors. It is a tough battle for single screen and stand alone cinemas.”

Bansal explained the issue and said if it is a two-screen property in North India, one film will get five shows and the other three. Because Dunki is a Thursday release, it will get all the cinemas on Thursday.

 

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“When a new film will arrive on Friday, of course there will be a drop and that happens always. The issue is being resolved as we speak. Usually if a multiplex has three screens, it will divide one screen out of the two for each film, open the advance at least and say let’s keep talking about the showcasing. This happens with every clash. Ultimately the winner is the film which is well received. If a film has less screens but is liked more, its count increases eventually,” he added.

Multiplex division and opening day estimate

According to trade sources, a tentative showcasing in multiplexes would be 50 percent for Dunki, 35 percent for Salaar and 15 percent for Aquaman, Animal and Sam Bahadur.

“Dunki will be leading in the north India market, in single screens and multiplexes. In single screens, it will be on a case-to-case basis depending on the equation the exhibitors share with the distributors of the territory. At an all-India level, showcasing will be in favour of Dunki,” the industry source added.

Dunki, unlike the previous two Shah Rukh Khan films Pathaan and Jawan, won’t be releasing in dubbed languages. Salaar will have a pan-India opening in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam.

“In South it is a different ball game. Some places screen Hindi films, some are exclusively only for Tamil and Telugu. The latter will obviously screen only Salaar, but the former will see Dunki get good showcasing along with Salaar. The conflict is majorly in North India,” the source added.

While the distributors and exhibitors still fight out for the best showcasing, going by the current trend of advance booking, trade sources said Dunki is looking to be the biggest opening of a Rajkumar Hirani film at Rs 40 cr. His last release, Ranbir Kapoor starrer Sanju, had opened at Rs 34 cr. Salaar Hindi will be targeting an opening in the range of Rs 17-18 cr.