Bollywood eagerly awaits the end of cricket season

After nearly three months of back-to-back cricket tournaments, the International Cricket Council World Cup and the Indian Premier League (IPL), Bollywood is fully geared to sizzle the screens with a bouquet of big-budget movies. Around Rs 450-500 crore is riding on these movies, slated for release in the next three months, according to industry officials.

The big production houses —Yash Raj Films, UTV Motion Pictures, Eros International, Reliance Big Pictures, Red Chillies Entertainment, Excel Entertainment and Dharma Productions — are all pinning their hopes on several releases scheduled post-IPL. IPL Season-4 gets over on May 28.

“There were no big releases due to the World Cup and Indian Premier League. The film industry hopes for box office redemption in the next few months,” said Sunil Punjabi, CEO, Cinemax

Film trade analysts and multiplex operators believe these movies may benefit from the fact that viewers have not seen a multi-starrer in three months. The first biggie lined for release is Ready, the Salman Khan starrer, directed by Anees Bazmee on June 3. The movie has already started its marketing campaign by releasing its trailer during the cricket season and pushing the film through promotional activities on several reality shows on television.

This will be followed by Reliance Big Pictures’ comedy caper, Double Dhamaal, a sequel to the 2007 film, Dhamaal, starring Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Riteish Deshmukh.

The other key releases the trade is looking forward to are Aamir Khan Productions and UTV’s Delhi Belly (July 1) and Farhan Akthar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (July 15), starring Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol and Akthar himself. The movie, distributed by Eros, has been shot in exotic locales of Egypt and Spain.

Other big releases from the same studio are Always Kabhi Kabhi (June 17), the Shahid Kapur starrer, Mausam (July 22), and Shah Rukh Khan’s sci-fi thriller Ra.One, Saif Ali Khan’s Agent Vinod and Desi Boyz with Akshay Kumar and John Abraham, slated for release in the last quarter of 2011.

“During the cricket season, we had released several small-budget movies which were high on content, as we can’t risk big-budget movies. These movies form 40-45 per cent of our revenues.Going ahead, our slate is really looking good,” said Kamal Jain, CFO, Eros International

Other films due for release are Viacom 18’s Bbuddah, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan (August 12) Murder 2 (July 8), Rohit Shetty’s Singam remake with Ajay Devgn (July 22 ), Reliance BIG Pictures’ Bodyguard starring Salman Khan (August 31)), Imtiaz Ali’s Rock Star ( September 9), Yash Raj Films Mere Brother Ki Dulhan with Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif, Farhan Akthar’s Don 2 (Decmber 26) and Karan Johar’s remake of Agneepath, starring Hrithik Roshan (date not yet announced).

The only detrimental point is that big films will clash and eat into one another’s business, believes Taran Adarsh, film trade analyst. Apart from this, the Bollywood biggies might have to face some tough competition from Hollywood studios, gearing for a movie blitzkrieg as well this summer.

“The Hollywood line-up also looks exciting with Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars 2, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II and Transformers in the next three months,” said Amitabh Vardhan, Director and CEO, Inspire Multiplex Pvt Ltd, which runs My Cinemas.