The producers of Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar have decided to go ahead with the same release date (8th March), as originally announced, in spite of the confusion over the date of celebrating the festival of colours. Luv Ranjan and Ankur Garg had, months ago, scheduled their Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor starrer for release on Wednesday, 8th March, the day of Holi. Confusion started a few days back with some states announcing that the Holi holiday would be observed on 7th March instead of 8th. The festival of colours will be celebrated in such states on 7th rather than on 8th.
The trade was wondering whether Luv and Ankur would advance the release date by a day and bring their film to the cinemas on Tuesday, 7th March instead of Wednesday, 8th March. It may be mentioned here that releasing a film on an odd day (non-Friday) is fraught with risks because the public is used to new films releasing on Fridays. However, producers have been known to advancing/delaying their release date by a day or two to take advantage of festival or public or national holidays as such release schedules are known to work to the advantage of the films so released. The fear in the case of TJMM was that if some states would not be observing 8th March as a holiday for Holi, the advantage of an odd-day release would not accrue in those states. Rather, it was feared, that the odd-day release could prove detrimental to the interest of the film in those states.
However, Yash Raj Films, which is distributing the film all over the world, has just announced that the romcom will hit the screens on 8th March, as originally planned. According to Luv Ranjan, the decision to go ahead with the release on 8th has been taken after a lot of deliberations. He told Information, “I feel, Holi will be celebrated on 8th even in states which have declared 7th as a holiday. That’s because most of India has declared 8th March as the Holi holiday. People celebrate festivals as per faith rather than on the basis of a holiday.” Getting into the commercial implications of the release plan, Luv added, “Besides, if Bombay circuit constitutes around 30% of all-India for a film like TJMM, let us not forget that the state of Gujarat (which is part of the Bombay circuit) has announced the Holi holiday as 8th whereas Maharashtra (also a part of Bombay circuit) has finalised 7th March as a holiday. Besides Maharashtra, the states of Rajasthan, Telangana and Assam will observe 7th March as the holiday for Holi. Telangana will observe both, 7th and 8th, as holidays.”
According to Yash Raj Films, the advance bookings for the eagerly awaited film will open all over India on Sunday, 5th March. While on the film, it may be mentioned here that it has a running time of 2 hours, 39 minutes and 58 seconds. The first half (with a running time of 1 hour, 9 minutes and 39 seconds) is much shorter than the post-interval part (1 hour, 30 minutes and 19 seconds). The film has been certified ‘UA’.
