This Diwali will be the most different for the Bollywood box office ever since one can remember. Thama and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat clash with each other and from the core genre perspective they are quite different for a Diwali release since the former is a horror comedy while latter is a love story. This also means that neither of the topmost superstars would be firing away as Ayushmann Khurrana and Harshvardhan Rane take on each other.
To think of it, last year still saw a battle royale as Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 locked horns. So much so that the fight went all the way to the wire with pre-release as well as post-release rivalry making headlines. While former had Ajay Devgn join forces with Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh and Tiger Shroff in the Rohit Shetty cop universe, latter had Kartik Aaryan and Anees Bazmee reunite for the horror comedy franchise. Neither of the two teams was willing to back off from the war and eventually box office got richer by close to 500 crores, hence resulting in a huge win-win for all.
Will that turn out to be the case this Diwali? Well, it’s going to be wait and watch as pre-release indications are that both the movies would primarily be playing on their merits instead of firing all cylinders all the way. Picture this – When Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 arrives then both ended up taking a bumper opening, hence resulting in the first day numbers of 80 crores. Now it would be a reason to rejoice even if half of that comes between 2025 Diwali releases Thama and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat.
Thama belongs to the horror universe and hence it’s definitely going to have a good opening. However is it the next 30-40 crores opener in the offering? Well, that’s going to be a wait and watch scenario as the hype hasn’t hit that point so far that it makes audiences crave for it well in advance. The trailer was decent and the songs okay, but then there is the familiarity factor with the universe which is a plus. Moreover, Diwali holiday is huge which means the opening would be the best ever for Ayushmann Khurrana and the second best outside Stree franchise, hence promising the first day of 25 crores+ at least.
On the other hand Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat is a love story drama and with Harshvardhan Rane winning over audiences with his re-release Sanam Teri Kasam, an opening day of 8-10 crores is on the cards. The film will benefit from Diwali arrival and while there is Thama as huge competition, the fact that there is an audience out there for fiery romance – especially after Saiyaara – means that the opening would be at least decent to good.
All of this means that a 35 crores+ opening day would be on the cards, though one has to admit that for a Diwali holiday, there is potential to do so much more. After all, the big day has seen Akshay Kumar revive theatres with Sooryavanshi during pandemic and prior to that last Diwali was also owned by him with 200 Crore Club winner Housefull 4. Ditto for Ajay Devgn who has been bringing films on Diwali for many years with his Golmaal series being the darling of the distributors on the festive occasion.
As for the Khans, Salman Khan has delivered a huge blockbuster Tiger 3 in Diwali while prior to that even an average Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo had managed to score a double century. As for Shah Rukh Khan, he is now doing lesser movies but back in time he was a regular on the festive holiday with Happy New Year, Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Ra. One being some of his last biggies in the decade and a half, albeit with mixed results.
Each of these superstars is still at the top of the game today but surprisingly none is bringing a film this Diwali, which means it would boil down to the merits of Thama and Ek Deewane Ki Dewqaniyat to make it big over the extended Week One of 10 days. There will also be positives to extract from this situation because if and when these films manage to click well then there would well be more contenders on Diwali and other holiday slots to come.
May the box office shine and newer fireworks explode.
