There must be something about next year’s Eid that the film slated to release in that week keeps changing every few months. The first announcement for Eid 2020 came from Rohit Shetty when he said, he would bring his Suryavanshi in the coveted week. It came as a surprise because by tradition, it has almost always been Salman Khan’s film hitting the screens in the festive week. In fact, like millions of Salman’s fans, even the trade expects a Salman starrer to release on Eid.
But the Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif starrer’s date with the public on Eid was short-lived. For, the film’s release date was changed when Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s In-shaa-Allah, starring Salman Khan and Alia Bhatt, was announced as the Eid release. Rohit Shetty and the people behind In-shaa-Allah sat across the table and agreed not to clash with each other, which is why the release date of Suryavanshi was changed. The trade felt happy because, as in the last few years, it was once again going to be a Salman starrer releasing on Eid. It wasn’t as if the trade was unhappy about Suryavanshi hitting the screens on Eid but it’s just that the trade doesn’t like to rock the boat if it can be helped. But the trade’s feeling of ‘security’ was also short-lived because just today (26th August), Sanjay Leela Bhansali declared that he had shelved In-shaa-Allah. Last evening, Salman Khan had tweeted that In-shaa-Allah would not be able to keep its date with the world on Eid. But in the same tweet, he hinted that he would still meet the public on Eid, hinting that either his Dabangg 3 or Kick 2 would come on Eid next year.
But even before Salman could specify what he meant, Akshay Kumar stepped in. After Bhansali’s announcement that In-shaa-Allah had been shelved, Akshay Kumar seized the opportunity and jumped in. He announced today that Laxmmi Bomb, his home production which he is making jointly with Fox Star Studios, Tusshar Kapoor and Shabina Khan, will be the Eid release of 2020. The Akshay Kumar and Kiara Advani starrer will release on 22nd May next year. Hopefully, this is the last announcement for the festive week of 2020, which sees box-office collections spiking crazily. Which would mean that Akshay was destined to come to the cinemas on Eid… if not in Suryavanshi then in Laxmmi Bomb. Or will we still see another change? We can’t overlook the latter part of Salman’s tweet of 25th August. It says, “…I will still see you all, on Eid 2020. Insha-Allah.”