Will we ever learn from our mistakes? I doubt! I mean, look at the number of films flooding the market week after week. Releasing two films on a Friday is comprehensible, but how does one explain the clash of five films on a single Friday? By the way, I am not including the Hollywood import [GREEN LANTERN], which was also dubbed in Hindi. Nor am I including the non-Hindi films that opened simultaneously. Come to think of it, films like ALWAYS KABHI KABHI and CYCLE KICK are produced by experienced film-makers [SRK, Subhash Ghai], while some films had experienced names supervising and overseeing their release. Didn't they realize what was in store?
The general feeling amongst several film-makers is, meri film SHOLAY hain, baaki sabhi chhole hain. We tend to under-estimate the opponent. We tend to believe that the viewer is waiting with bated breath to watch our film and is just not interested in watching the opponent's film. It's impossible for the common man to watch 3/4/5 films in a single week due to budget and time constraints. Besides, there's ample entertainment on television these days, so luring viewers to movie halls is getting tougher by the day.
The sad part is, there are more people in preview screenings [hosted before the release of a film for guests] than at cineplexes on Friday. Cancellation of shows due to lack of audience has become a norm. Look at the weekend business of the films released last Friday. I am not implying that lesser releases would've changed their fate at the ticket window, but right from procuring the screens to getting the right shows to the weekend business, things would've only been better.
Barring BHEJA FRY 2, which did well at select properties of metros, the business of films like ALWAYS KABHI KABHI, BHINDI BAAZAAR INC. and CYCLE KICK was dismal. BIN BULAYE BARAATI was released at single screens mainly and the business was better in some circuits. But are the overall numbers worth applauding? Will the respective makers accept that the clash has only harmed their movies?
Will the scenario change in the future? Will we abstain from releasing multiple films in the forthcoming weeks? Nothing will change, frankly. When have we ever learnt from our mistakes? Never! The only thing that changed this Friday was the fact that the tally of flops only got bigger.
