This week will see Shahrukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan battle it out at the box office. Its an early release on Wednesday for both films with the big holiday falling on Thursday. There is just one holiday and not a holiday period where a clash maybe can be justified but this is how its played out and two big films will release on the same day. It is in real a Shahrukh Khan V Hrithik Roshan clash as the films do not have much of a supporting cast and the music of both films is not that big that it adds on the initial. Even the directors of both films do not have much of a track record. Rahul Dholakia of Raaes is untried at this level while Sanjay Gupta has many films (the last being Jazbaa) but limited success.
Hrithik Roshan clashed with Akshay Kumar a few weeks back with Mohenjo Daro against Rustom and came off second best and here the gap in the initial will be more as there is a huge miscalculation from the makers of Kaabil. The hero and the heroine are blind in Kaabil and the promos show this clearly so even if the film was solo it would have struggled to open. In fact till date no film with a blind male lead has ever grossed big at the box office. Its surprising that a big banner like Filmkraft have made such an error as Kaabil is more of a content film and needs space and time. The film has fetched high prices from distributors and that is probably why the film stuck to the date because a change would have led to distributors renegotiating deals to a lower price even though a date change would have benefited all. The film has huge table profits before release. Another problem is that its a content film but the director tends to make films inspired from the West or Far East and generally void of emotions so he will have to surpass the previous works in a big way for Kaabil to have the content to get big numbers.
Raees has Shahrukh Khan and a solid theatrical trailer which gives an impression of a mass film so the initial is going to come. There is a clash with Kaabil but initially it will no surprise if it is just a one horse race. The only problem with Raees is that it has turn out the sort of film that the theatrical shows it is. The director of the film has made a few films but very art like films (Parzania, Lamhaa) while the banner Excel Entertainment also make films with a different cinematic language and narrative be it Dil Chahta Hai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Dhadakne Do, Baar Baar Dekho and the Rock On films among others. If the film is like the theatrical shows and a full out Hindi mass film with action, dialogues and Shahrukh Khan then it will be hard to stop. But if the treatment is like what the banner and director have given to their previous films then the public is no fool and will find out very fast and then its just about where the initial star power of Shahrukh Khan can take it.
The makers of both films are fighting for shows so the advance has not started at many places. In fact for Kabil it has hardly started anywhere while Raees advance started at some places over the weekend and has raced ahead. Its hard to judge pre sales due to the limited screens open for advance but most should open today and there will be a clearer idea of sales by the end of the day.
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