Box- office clashes have become the norm in Bollywood. But the sane reasoning to it is there are only 52 weekends in the year and the Hindi film industry churns out way more than just 52 films all through the year, so there are bound to be multiple films releasing on the same Friday. But when such a clash is between the top superstars in the industry, somehow stories about their supposed rivalry and the tension between them takes centre stage.
One such box-office clash is between Shah Rukh Khan’s untitled film with Imtiaz Ali as director and the Akshay Kumar starrer Toilet – Ek Prem Katha. Both the films are slated for release on August 11 which is a long Independence day weekend. The Akshay Kumar starrer was earlier up for an early June release but the makers decided to push it to August.
Pleased to share, @ToiletTheFilm an unusual love story will be with you on 11th Aug, 2017. Tayyar ho jayye Swachch Azaadi ke liye! pic.twitter.com/EEb5bOySu0
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) March 30, 2017
Toilet- Ek Prem Katha is a satirical comedy underlining PM Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign and speaks about the unhygienic conditions especially in rural India. The film stars Bhumi Pednekar opposite Akshay Kumar and is written by Garima and Siddharth, who also wrote SLB’s Goliyon ki Raasleela : Ramleela.
The Imitiaz Ali film on the other hand stars SRK opposite Anushka Sharma, for the third time post Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Although there is not much that has been revealed about the film yet, it is allegedly a romantic drama with SRK playing a tourist guide who meets Anushka’s character who is on a vacation in Europe. The film has been shot in Prague, Amsterdam, Budapest and Punjab. There have been innumerable rumours about the title of the film being ‘The Ring’, while others calling it ‘Rehnuma’. Imtiaz Ali has denied these rumours and stated that the title will be out soon.
Thank u @beingsalmankhan & @aliaa08 for the date of Imtiaz’s film. Ab bas title dhoond do! Wot u seek is seeking u… pic.twitter.com/rePpfmWAtw
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) November 29, 2016
Surprisingly, with this clash both SRK and Akshay have maintained their silence and taken the dignified route and will let the box-office do the talking. With allegedly equal number of screens being allotted to both the films, the film with the better marketing tricks under its sleeve to create a hype around it, will triumph in the opening weekend. But ultimately, the better film will sustain post that. Yes, the business and the earnings will get divided between the two films, but some things are inevitable in showbiz.
