Aamir Khan’s announcement yesterday (20th November) about the new release date of his Laal Singh Chaddha took the industry by surprise for three reasons:
(1) Why did he postpone his film once again, from 11th February next year to 14th April, 2022?
(2) Why did he finalise a date during Ramzan when most producers refrain from scheduling the release of their big-budget films in the Ramzan days?
(3) Why did he opt for a date (14th April, 2022) which had already been ‘taken’ by the producers of Kannada film KGF Chapter 2 which, incidentally, will also be released in its dubbed Hindi version, like the very successful first part, KGF?
“There are two ways of doing the visual effects — you can do a rush job or you can go for quality work. I didn’t want a rush job, hence I preferred to postpone the film.”
The sole reason for postponing the release of Laal Singh Chaddha, according to producer-hero Aamir Khan is that “the visual effects are taking very long to complete”. Laal Singh Chaddha is VFX-heavy, and, when the visual effects work started, even the VFX team was not sure about how much time it would need to complete the film. Says Aamir, “There are two ways of doing the visual effects — you can do a rush job or you can go for quality work. I didn’t want a rush job, hence I preferred to postpone the film. Actually, after the lockdown in March 2020, when it was clear that our visual effects work would be delayed, besides the fact that our shooting of the balance portions was still pending, we took the call of postponing the release by one year — from Christmas 2020 to Christmas 2021. That’s because, since the last many years, I’ve opted for the Christmas week for the release of my films. But after the second Coronavirus wave, we realised that meeting the new release date (Christmas 2021) would also not be possible. That’s when I told my production team that we should forthwith announce the postponement so that if someone wanted to get his film in the Christmas week this year, he could plan accordingly. But my team felt, we should give a new release date while announcing the postponement. So, we randomly announced the new release date as 11th February, 2022 as it was a romantic film, and 14th February is Valentine’s Day. But we were not at all sure if we would be able to get the film on that date.
“Then, when we recently understood that keeping our date of 11th February next year would be impossible, I sat with my VFX team and asked them when they would be able to give me the final copy. They promised to deliver it by 14th March which, incidentally, happens to be my birthday. Since we would need at least a month for other formalities and technicalities thereafter, like certification, etc., we thought of 14th April as the new date of release,” concluded Aamir.
“Since I am playing a Sikh for the first time in my career, the Baisakhi day (14th April) seemed to be the most appropriate for the release of LAAL SINGH CHADDHA.”
But since the release of KGF Chapter 2 had already been announced for that date, did Aamir not consider another date? Replied Aamir, “Ideally, I would never take a date which has already been finalised by the producer of another big film. I hate to give the impression that I am trespassing on someone else’s territory, but since I am playing a Sikh for the first time in my career, the Baisakhi day (14th April) seemed to be the most appropriate for the release of Laal Singh Chaddha.” However, finalising April 14, 2022 as the release date was far from being simple for the superstar. He revealed, “Before I finalised the date, I profusely apologised to the producer (Vijay Kiragandur), director (Prashanth Neel) and lead man (Yash) of KGF Chapter 2. I wrote to them, and explained my predicament. I told them how the lockdown had made matters difficult for all producers. I also explained that a Baisakhi release for my film would be ideal. They understood my viewpoint and were good enough to ask me to go ahead in spite of their film releasing on the same day. I was very touched by their gesture. In fact, I had a long heart-to-heart conversation with Yash who was very supportive of my plan. I told him that KGF was an established brand name and so, people would definitely patronise the sequel. I also told him that since his was an action film whereas mine was a family film as it was a love story, the two films would hopefully not eat into each other’s collections. I also volunteered to promote his film. I told Yash, I would be watching his film on 14th April in a cinema hall as I am a fan of the KGF franchise, like millions of others.”
Aamir continued, “I also told Yash that of the nine ras, our films represented two different ras, so it would be good for the public to get to experience two completely different ras on the occasion of Baisakhi.”
As regards Ramzan, Aamir Khan felt, he could afford to overlook the fact that it is not the best period to release a big-budget film, because of the extraordinary situation the industry finds itself in, following the 20-month closure of cinemas due to the lockdown. “I didn’t have much choice,” recalled the actor-producer with the Midas touch. “If I would think of avoiding the Ramzan days, I would have to release the film during the IPL matches. If I would avoid KGF Chapter 2, I would have to come with some other film.”