Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; April 16, 2014)

The makers of Bombay Velvet can heave a sigh of relief, now that the release of Aamir Khan-starrer, PK, has been pulled forward by a week.

Earlier slated to release on December 25, the film will now release on December 19, just a week before Christmas. An official statement sent out by Disney India reads, “Vinod Chopra Films and Rajkumar Hirani Films, in association with Disney India, confirm that P. K. shall release on 19th December 2014.” It may be pointed out that Bombay Velvet, starring Ranbir Kapoor, is slated to release on December 25, so when PK’s makers recently announced that their film would hit the big screen on the same day, the former’s makers were quite upset with the development. Bombay Velvet’s director, Anurag Kashyap, even expressed his anger at a press conference saying that Rajkumar Hirani should’ve at least called him and informed him about releasing his film on the same day.

Interestingly, while the Aamir v/s Ranbir clash has been averted, the John Abraham film, Welcome Back, will be releasing on December 19. This means that this film, directed by Anees Bazmee, will now have to face competition from Aamir’s film.

Trade analysts, on the other hand, don’t think releasing PK a week before Christmas will help much. Taran Adarsh says, “It is not going change much because it is again the Christmas holiday season and both films will get affected. Ideally, only one film should release then.”

Exhibitors are not too happy with the release dates either. Anand Vishal of Fun Cinemas says, “Two big films clashing at the BO is not the best scenario for a multiplex operator and it’s the same for us.”