The tug-of-war for cinemas and shows between War and Syeraa Narasimha Reddy (dubbed) tomorrow has not been without heartburns. Aditya Chopra, through his distributors, made it clear to the multiplexes that in properties with two screens, he would not allow a single show to be given to any other film except his, which effectively meant that if the two-screen multiplexes dared to give even one show to the other Gandhi Jayanti release viz. Syeraa Narasimha Reddy, he would not allow his War to be screened in such multiplexes. Likewise, his distributors specified the total number of shows they’d need in three-screen, four-screen and five-screen multiplexes. The diktat to single-screen cinemas was clear: all the shows would be given to War and there was no question of show-sharing.
The problem was not just that. When Anil Thadani, the distributor of Syeraa Narasimha Reddy, had released his last film, Saaho, in August, he had asked the exhibitors, mostly the stand-alone multiplex owners (other than the national chains of PVR, Inox, Cinepolis and Carnival), to promise him a minimum of three shows if they had a two-screen multiplex, four shows if they had a three-screen multiplex, and a minimum of five shows in the case of a four-screen multiplex. Anil Thadani had then told the multiplex owners that if they did not promise him such number of shows, he’d not screen his Saaho at their properties. Not wanting to forgo Saaho, the exhibitors had very reluctantly promised Thadani the number of shows he desired for Syeraa. Of course, they were aware that Aditya Chopra would insist on maximum shows for War but since their immediate concern was Saaho, they did what Thadani wanted them to do. However, while agreeing with Thadani’s demand, the stand-alone multiplexes put a caveat that they would go by what the national multiplex chains would do. That is to say, if the national multiplex chains gave lesser shows to Syeraa than demanded by Anil Thadani from stand-alone multiplexes, they would follow the example of the chains.
What has finally emerged after a lot of going back and forth is that the two-screen multiplexes have given just one show to Syeraa, the three-screen multiplexes have apportioned two shows daily to the South film, and the four-screen multiplexes have given Syeraa only three shows daily.
And what has happened to Chhichhore and Dream Girl? Most of the two-screen multiplexes and three-screen multiplexes have discontinued the two films despite the fact that they both are still doing very well. So while Syeraa Narasimha Reddy has suffered greatly due to the pressure of War distributors, the other casualties are Chhichhore and Dream Girl.