IPL, Elections or over exposure of stars: Who to blame for a dry May at the box office?

Today, we can only surmise if a particular film may release in May this year! Presenting the Great May Reshuffle where films announced as May 2024 releases are being delayed and pushed on to June at least. This is a situation barely encountered in cinema history to this extent before, so here’s a quick look.

IPL, Elections or over exposure of stars: Who to blame for a dry May at the box office?

May was supposed to open with The Sabarmati Report, said to be an ‘authentic’ retelling of the Godhra incident in which 59 people were killed when the train was set on fire. Not only did the film have issues with the CBFC, but it is said that the Election Commission also had problems with releasing such a film during election season. The Vikrant Massey-Raashii Khanna film will now release some time after the polling season gets over.

Tehran (John Abraham) and Bombay, an underworld drama, are also not releasing in May. Chandu Champion, a sports biopic with Kartik Aaryan as India’s first Paralympic gold medallist Murlikant Petkar, is rescheduled to June 14 too. Kalki 2898 AD, a big film with Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Haasan and Prabhas, has also been shifted to, as of now, June 27. As for Ajay Devgn’s Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha!, it has been postponed indefinitely, as in with no known release date.

An exception is Srikanth, featuring Rajkummar Rao as Srikanth Bolla, a visually-impaired Indian industrialist. This film is said to have maintained its date with the audience on May 10. And towards the end of the polling season, Karan Johar’s Mr & Mrs Mahi (Rajkummar Rao again with Janhvi Kapoor) will arrive as scheduled on May 31.

Clearly, apart from the insecurity, there are multiple reasons at play for the changes in dates. Opined veteran exhibitor Raj Bansal: “The industry has always been apprehensive about the annual IPL matches, and that is correct to some extent.”

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh had once declared that “the IPL was no opposition to films”. However, things have changed a bit, especially after COVID, though among the films that have defied IPL in the past were Housefull 2, Aashiqui 2, 2 States, Tanu Weds Manu Returns and Bahubali 2: The Conclusion, whereas all the myriad movies that were ‘affected’ were anyway substandard products.

Said Bansal, “But the main issue now is the General Elections. But on the other hand, where was that great line-up of films anyway?”

Has the underperforming of Maidaan and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan also influenced all this shifting? “I guess so,” he answered. “The release of Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha featuring the same hero, Ajay Devgn, has now been rightly pushed back as his Shaitaan and Maidaan had released back-to-back in March and April. I have always maintained that a big star should only do two films a year, and if unavoidable, a third movie. Ideally, the minimum gap between two such movies should be 4 to 5 months. I would add that the industry has also been dented by Akshay Kumar’s flops.”

Agreed Taran Adarsh on the quantum of movies a big star should do, “Three should be the maximum number of movies a star should do in a year.” And now with so many films being pushed forward, will there not be too many clashes or weeks with multiple releases in the rest of the year? “What can be done?” asked Taran. “There are only 52 Fridays in a year.”

Of course, a good film overrides such adverse-to-box-office circumstances. A favourite example of mine is of Ram Aur Shyam doing ‘Housefull’ business in the midst of a riot-stricken area in 1967! But those were different times. Big names like Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan had no qualms about having two big releases even in one calendar month because the audience craved to watch them anyway. Reviews appeared two days later and filmmakers could capitalize on business with the initial advance bookings even with movies that were destined to flounder later.

Social media and hype, multiplexes and OTT were all absent and the definition of what connoted a film star was different! But today, every big-ticket film becomes a solo release, and clear 15-day periods both before and after release are considered ideal to do decent business! But now, thanks to social media as well as instant film reviews, the IPL, General Elections and every other ‘possible cause’ have contributed to a producer’s or star’s phobias about how a film will fare.

And that’s how this Great May Reshuffle is set to play out.

More Pages: Chandu Champion Box Office Collection

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