Eid-ul-Fitr marks one of the two major periods of the year where cinema owners and filmmakers in Pakistan earn the most revenue. Nearly every producer eyes the two Eids every year as potential release dates because of the long weekends and the forgiving mood of the audience. However, this Eid things will be different because the releases — local and international — outnumber the number of screens available and the scenario could lead to an unfavourable outcome for some.

The two Pakistani films in the race to the box office are Yasir Nawaz’s Mehrunisa V Lub U and Hassan Waqas Rana’s Yalghaar. While one features Danish Taimoor and Sana Javed in the lead credits with Jawed Sheikh and Qavi Khan in supporting roles, the latter is home to the who’s who of Pakistan’s film industry. From Shaan Shahid to Humayun Saeed, Ayub Khoso to Adnan Siddiqui, Sana Bucha to Armeena Khan, everyone has a part to play in Yalghaar based on a real-life event.

Interestingly, Eveready Pictures are distributing both the films alongside two Hollywood biggies Transformers — The Last Knight and Pirates of the Caribbean — Dead Man Tell No Tales. They also had Cars 3 in their Eid planning but thankfully, it will hit the screens a week later to make the most of the summer vacations. Pirates of the Caribbean — Dead Man Tell No Tales was supposed to hit the screens on May 26, but the distributors chose to postpone its release because of Ramazan.

As Eid releases outnumber the number of screens, the situation could result in a different kind of crisis

“According to the government directives, cinemas would only open for two to three shows a day during Ramazan and that limited the scope of our film,” says Satish Anand, the chairman of Eveready Group of Companies explaining why he went for a later release. “Had we brought Pirates — an expensive import nonetheless — not only the number of shows would have been reduced drastically, we might also have faced losses. In fact, it will be releasing on Eid day in GCC countries as well, since in Muslim countries, the audience chooses to stay away from cinemas during the holy month. That’s why we decided to bring the film when they most look forward to it.”

Mohsin Yaseen, GM Marketing & Content, Cinepax Cinemas doesn’t agree with this tactic and cites recent examples to prove his theory. “Yes, I agree that audience is less in Ramazan, but we are seeing year on year increase in cinema admits during the holy month. We have seen release of Wonder Woman and The Mummy during the first and second week of June and cinemas are going houseful during evenings with these releases. As far as the discussion of Eid and post-Eid releases is concerned, I’m glad to see such content supply as the audience will have a lot to choose from and cinemas will be busy with lots of new and repeat customers for different genre of films that will be playing.”

Kamran Yar Khan, Director Media & Programming, Nueplex Cinemas also believes that the days of delaying film releases are over. “Distributors can no longer afford to delay the release of tentpole titles by more than a week at most. The phenomenal box-office performance of Jurassic World during Ramazan a couple of years ago, last year’s Conjuring 2, Wonder Woman and The Mummy this year are clear indicators that with the advent of multiplexes in Pakistan, a definite trend has emerged with the audiences watching the films in cinemas even during the holy month. Film distributors need to be more aggressive in their release strategy and stay updated with the latest cinema audience trends.”

There were two more films in the race but Shahid Shafaat’s Jhol and Sohail Khan’s Shor Sharaba don’t feature because the former is still under production while the latter hasn’t even begun promotion. In a brave move, Nueplex Cinemas turned down the distributors of Shor Sharaba — a Rabi Peerzada starrer — and told them to be more proactive the next time they plan a release date. Kamran Yar Khan explains the reason why they chose to limit themselves to two Urdu films instead of the-more-the-merrier. “A representative of the distributor emailed us two weeks before Eid that they intend to release their film on Eid. We had to excuse because there are a total of seven new Eid releases with all of them having been confirmed to us 45 days in advance. We had already opened advances of three titles and the screen space for the other four is committed. There was no buzz for the film two weeks before the release and since we have to plan out a strategy well in advance, we had no option but to tell them that our screen space will not be available for their title.”

The lead actor of Mehrunisa V Lub U Danish Taimoor says that the film that entertains the audience will win the race. Actress Sana Javed is confident that since her debut flick is helmed by the experienced Yasir Nawaz, it will do well at the box office. On the other hand, Hassan Waqas Rana feels that his debut directorial flick Yalghaar has all the ingredients to become a blockbuster especially if you consider that it is also the most expensive film ever made in the country. But with the number of cinemas increasing marginally with the passage of time, these films might suffer from too much content and too little space. In fact, they will face tough competition from two more films — the animated flick Despicable Me 3 and Baby Driver — also releasing on the same day. While the former will mark the Minions’ return to the big screen after last year’s Minions, the latter features Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx and John Hamm alongside Ansel Elgort, the star of The Fault in Our Stars.

And then there is the potential blockbuster that might not be released during the Eid holidays — Salman Khan’s Tubelight. The Kabir Khan film might make it to cinemas a week later since its release can jeopardise plans for all the other films — such is the belief of film producers in Pakistan who stand united against the import of Sallu’s flick. Salman Khan’s pull heralded silly flicks such as Jai Ho and Kick into the 100-crore club and, considering the last film he did with Kabir Khan (Bajrangi Bhaijan) became one of the biggest successes of his career, Tubelight is also destined for greatness.

The post-Eid scenario also looks rosy for the local cinema industry — Project Ghazi, the first Superhero flick in Pakistan since Shanee is all slated for a release on July 14, Syed Noor’s comeback vehicle Chein Aaye Na for July 21, while Mom — a Bollywood film featuring not one but two Pakistani artists i.e. Adnan Siddiqui and Sajal Ali — will make it to cinemas on July 7. That is if they get screens that will be too busy screening Spiderman — Homecoming and Munna Michael (July 7), War for the Planet of the Apes, Jagga Jasoos (tentative) and Haseena — Queen of Mumbai (July 14). Let’s hope most of these releases manage to do well so that the once-thriving business of cinema and films can finally move forward again.

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 25th, 2017