The expected has happened. Saaho has been postponed. Prabhas’ debut Hindi film (technically, Bahubali: The Beginning and Bahubali 2: The Conclusion were not Hindi films as they were both dubbed in Hindi) will not hit the screens on 15th August.
Saaho, co-starring Shraddha Kapoor, was to release on Independence Day alongwith Akshay Kumar’s Mission Mangal and John Abraham’s Batla House. The trade had found this release schedule a bit too much for comfort as it was felt that three big films clashing with each other just for one holiday was weird. No doubt, the national holiday is a coveted one but the advantage of the holiday would, in all likelihood, be offset by the disadvantage of the big clash, it was being argued in trade circles. It was a given that all the three films would have eaten into one another’s collections. It has always been the norm in film trade that while two’s company, three’s a crowd as far as new releases are concerned. Of course, the ideal situation for any producer of a big film would be that his film comes solo on a Friday. But if that’s not possible, especially in a week or weekend of a national or festive or public holiday, two films is considered the ideal number.
The producers of Mission Mangal and Batla House would’ve heaved a sigh of relief yesterday when the makers of Saaho announced that its computer graphics were taking more time than they had provided for and hence they were left with no option but to postpone its release. It may be added here that Saaho has been shot in Telugu and Hindi and dubbed in Tamil and Kannada. Whether Saaho will now release on 30th August or after that is not known. But what is certain is that this Independence Day (Thursday) will see two and not three films clashing at the box-office.