MUMBAI: As Muslims across India practise abstinence during Ramazan, Bollywood will be engaging in its own form of frugality and denial.
Producers, knowing that almost half the movie audiences in India are Muslims who will be mostly giving the cinema a wide berth for the next four weeks, are keeping their best fare for post-Ramazan.
Key movies that will be released after Ramazan are “Janasheen”, “Khakee” and “Kal Ho Na Ho”, though critic-turned-director Khalid Mohammed will release his “Tehzeeb” during the last week of Ramazan.
Eid falls around Nov 25 and the following Friday will see the release of the three huge films.
“Janasheen” is a romantic thriller, “Khakee” is a police story and director-turned-producer Karan Johar’s “Kal Ho Naa Ho” is a romantic tearjerker.
“I believe that Ramazan does lead to the loss of a chunk of the audience and we see no reason to take any chances,” Mr Johar said.
“There are a lot of people who abstain from watching films and one should respect that.”
He does not believe the release of three films on the same Friday will hamper his movie’s prospects.
“Although there are two other big films releasing on the same day, all are different types of films in terms of content and cater to different audiences. There’s plenty of room for everyone,” he said.
A film analyst believes that there will indeed be room for everyone at the box office by the end of the Ramazan season.
“After a dry spell of a month, more than one big film shouldn’t be a problem at the box office,” said Komal Nahata, editor of Film Information magazine.
Mr Johar’s last release, “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham”, was also an Eid release and it went on to become one of the highest grossers of 2001.
Khalid Mohammed’s “Tehzeeb” will however be released during the last week of Ramazan.
“We don’t look at it as a risk releasing it on the last few days of Ramazan,” said Anjan Ghosh, producer of the film.
“Although the trend nowadays is that a film relies on the opening weekend for most of their ticket sales, ‘Tehzeeb’ is relying more on word-of-mouth publicity. So we are actually using those four days before Eid as a buffer period.”
Mr Nahata, however, feels this tactic could be disastrous for the movie. I think they are taking a huge risk with ‘Tehzeeb’. It’s a Muslim social drama and to release it during Ramazan is suicidal,” he said
Diwali, the year’s biggest festival for Hindus, is generally considered a good time for big releases, but this year proved lacklustre for the industry, with four medium-sized films bombing miserably at the box office.
The short gap between Diwali, on Oct 25, and the start of Ramazan, on Oct 28, is being blamed for the fizzle.
“This Diwali was possibly the worst time to release a film. The only benefit the filmmakers got were two post-Diwali days before Ramazan,” said Mr Nahata.
“Ramazan makes a huge difference to Bollywood as a good 40 to 50 per cent of the cinegoing audience is made up of Muslims and if even half of them stay away from the halls, that will affect the films in a big way.” —AFP