There will be a battle royale this Independence Day, what with three films slated to release that day. Alongside Akshay Kumar’s Mission Mangal will come Nikhil Advani’s Batla House and South’s Saaho. Since Independence Day falls on Thursday, all the three films will hit the screens a day before the usual day of release of all new films. Actually, that goes without saying because it doesn’t make sense to opt for a national-holiday-week release if one is not going to take advantage of the holiday.
It also does not need to be emphasised that each film will eat into the collections of the other two. Of course, the film which will prove to be better than the others will stand to lose the least but even that film will stand to lose in some way or the other. The trade is actually wondering if it is at all worth their while for the producers of the three films to clash at the box-office for that one holiday. It’s quite likely that the advantage which accrues due to the national holiday would be offset or even more than offset because of the opposition of the two other films.
So who stands to lose more or, in other words, which film will score over the others? Frankly, that will be decided by the paying public on 15th August only. But we are looking at an unlikely battle. While Batla House has a budget of Rs. 36 crore, the cost of production of Mission Mangal is even lesser if one does not consider the remuneration of Akshay Kumar who is the film’s producer. Fox is said to have acquired Mission Mangal for distribution from the star. The costliest film of this Independence Day is Saaho with a budget of Rs. 330 crore. Before you jump out of your skin, be informed that Saaho has been made in two languages and dubbed in two more. It has been shot in Telugu and Hindi, and is being dubbed in Tamil and Kannada. The budget now seems justified!
So does it mean that Saaho will prove to be the most formidable opposition for the other two films than any of Mission Mangal and Batla House being a bigger opposition for the other two films? Possibly so!
Trade reports have it that all the three films are carrying good pre-release reports. Batla House has John Abraham in an avtaar which will be loved by the masses. Mission Mangal is what one refers to as content-rich. It is pre-dominantly about accomplishment of a space mission by women. And it stars Akshay Kumar, besides the leading ladies viz. Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Nithya Menen. And Saaho is a highly stylised and slick action thriller starring Prabhas whom the public has loved in Bahubali: The Beginning and Bahubali 2: The Conclusion.
So, effectually, the competition is between a crime thriller (Batla House), a woman-centric fare (Mission Mangal) and an action drama (Saaho). It is anybody’s guess that single-screen cinemas will give preference to the two action fares in their booking while it will be the mission of the multiplexes to book Mission Mangal at their properties in the holiday week.
Maybe, just maybe, all the three Independence Day releases click at the ticket windows. It is possible!