Zee, the all-India distributors of this week’s Ram Setu, will have to eat humble pie, after all. The Zee distribution team, as it should have done, tried to get the maximum number of shows and the best shows for its film from 25th October onwards. Since there was another major release (Thank God) on the same day, there were discussions galore with single-screen cinema owners, bookers and controllers. While many single-screen cinemas proposed a 50:50 division of shows, Zee wanted Ram Setu to be screened in daily 3 shows, leaving just one show for Thank God. In cinemas which conduct five shows daily, Zee wanted four of the five shows whereas those single-screen cinemas were willing to offer Ram Setu three shows daily. When, finally, Zee agreed to release Ram Setu in daily three shows at such cinemas, it insisted on all the three regular shows, but the cinemas offered to screen Ram Setu in two regular and one morning show daily.
When some cinemas pleaded inability to accommodate Ram Setu in daily three (out of four) shows or in the three (out of five) shows desired by Zee, the latter simply refused to give them the film. As a result, some good, share-yielding single-screen cinemas were left high and dry by Zee which simply struck their names off its list of cinemas to screen Ram Setu. Let’s take the example of U.P. only. Cinemas like Amba and Liberty in Delhi, Shree and Sanjay in Agra, Maya in Gorakhpur, Pratibha and Shubham in Lucknow, New Capitol in Nainital, Rama Palace in Rishikesh and several others could not screen the film because of the above reason.
In U.P., particularly, the film opened to decent houses on 25th. The single-screen cinemas, which had had to give the film a go-by because of the disagreement over the showcasing, must’ve felt miserable on the opening day, more so because the other release of the week, Thank God, took a lesser start. However, collections of both the films dropped at many places on the second day, and are dropping even more today (October 27, third day). Consequently, it is now the turn of the ignored single-screen cinemas to have the last laugh. For, not releasing Ram Setu at such cinemas has turned out to be Zee’s loss more than theirs (single-screen cinemas). Had the film opened in daily two shows (out of four) or two regular plus one morning shows (out of five) at those single-screen cinemas which were not granted the film at all, Zee would’ve at least added substantially to its share. With the rate at which collections of Ram Setu are dropping, the fate of the film seems to be sealed. And, therefore, the loss of shares due to the film not releasing in the aforementioned single-screen cinemas and more like them seems to be a dead loss now.
Perhaps, Zee must’ve learnt its lesson — it pays to be considerate rather than high-handed. Every distributor will, obviously, try to bag the maximum and best shows for his film but there is something known as give-and-take or adjustment. Even Zee must not have expected that collections of Ram Setu would drop so badly, and so fast. And mind you, we are talking of a drop on the second and third days, which are Diwali holidays. One shudders to think what the collections of Ram Setu will be in the coming days of the first week once the Diwali festival is over.