Weekend gone be turned out to be hot-n-happening for Bollywood as it was no more a boring Sunday but a day that opened up multiple uncertainties. The signs were there on Saturday itself when late at night there was a sudden announcement around Akshay Kumar’s Bhooth Bangla getting advanced from 15th May to 10th April. It made one wonder if that was the right move since this was just three weeks after Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar 2 & Yash’s Toxic and very importantly just a week before Salman Khan’s Battle Of Galwan which had its eyes on 17th April.
That said, given the fact that Akshay Kumar is even the producer of Bhooth Bangla, it was also a given that there must have been good thought behind this decision as he would never pick such a release date, especially when there is so much hype around his horror comedy. He would never bring his film in such a cramped period which means it was clear that a lot must have happened behind closed doors.
Well, chapters started unfolding from Sunday morning itself when murmurs started floating around Salman Khan pushing his Battle of Galwan to a later date. The reasons given were completion of shooting and also getting adequate permissions from the authorities before reading it for theatrical release. This made complete sense because otherwise barely a couple of months remained for Battle Of Galwan to arrive and that would have been rather too quick.
Moreover, a Salman Khan film is always special and this one is even more since after Sikandar and Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, the superstar would certainly be looking at a film of his making maximum impact and if that warrants further polishing of the product instead of bringing it in a rushed away then so be it. After all, Battle of Galwan is his only release this year and the wait should indeed be worth it.
There is another big benefit that Battle of Galwan would gain if it arrives a few months down the line. When it comes to war/battle films, there have been a plethora of releases in the last few months. Farhan Akhtar’s 120 Bahadur, Agastya Nanda’s Ikkis and Sunny Deol’s Border 2 have arrived back to back and while the first one dealt with Chinese, the next two featured Pakistan as the opponents. Now Battle of Galwan is about the bravura stand that the Indian army had taken against the Chinese and to have four such films belonging to the same genre and setting arrive back to back would have been way too much.
No wonder, by the time Sunday came to a close, there were ample all around murmurs that Salman Khan is aiming to bring the film on the weekend preceding Independence Day. 15th August falls on Saturday and it would be advantage Battle of Galwan if the film arrives a couple of days before that. First and foremost there would be a good gap between war/battle movies and very importantly, the film would also get a chance to breathe better for next few months and emerge as a far more polished product.
The point to be noted is that so far, there has been no official announcement whatsoever which means there would well be some more surprises in store. Will it indeed be Independence Day weekend release or some other date would be the chosen one? Well, we should know in just a matter of a couple of days or may be in just a few hours. However what’s undisputed is the fact that whichever date Salman Khan chooses for his film, the distribution and exhibition community would be happy to comply and accommodate.
Keep reading IWMBuzz.com.
