With Dussehra falling on October 20, the box office is gearing up for a crowded festive weekend. While Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 opened on Thursday, Friday sees the release of Yami Gautam Dhar’s fantasy drama Nayyi Navelli, Rajkummar Rao’s courtroom drama a Pruhaa Pruhaar, Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna’s Ranabaali, and Hollywood films Street Fighter and Whalefall.
Commenting on why the day matters to the trade, Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Inox Pictures Limited, tells us, “The Dussehra week is a very good window. It has always been a strong time to release a film in all languages, not just Hindi but across the country. Typically, films released during the Dussehra week have a very clean run until Diwali, when the next set of big films comes out. This gap of 20 days, which is roughly three weeks, is more than sufficient for films to have a very strong run at the box office.” The Diwali release this time is Ramayana Part 1, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi, which releases on November 5.
Kamal further feels that among the releases this week, Nayyi Navelli’s “goes well with the festival”, and Prahaar “is a high-concept film… but anything can take off these days.”
As for the clash between films of various types this year, Devang Sampat, Managing Director, Cinepolis India says, “Six films in one week is a lot. There is room, because the audience grows during a festival and these films are in different languages and genres. But each one gets less time to find its audience. When a release date is planned with an eight-week view across languages, the film gets a better run, audiences find it easier to decide, and we can plan our shows better.”
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh echoes the same sentiment as he says, “There are going to be a lot of films this time. We can only hope that they all find an audience, because that’s the need of the hour. It will get more crowded from now on till Diwali.”
Here are some clashes that happened on Dusshera in the recent years: