Raees will release on January 25. News of this comes just days after the Kaabil team pre-poned their film to avoid a clash with the SRK – Mahira Khan starrer Raees. “I didn’t know about their date. My distributors said we should come out on January 25 from the evening shows. I didn’t know the Raees team also planned to change their date,” said Rakesh Roshan, producer of Kaabil.
Read: Kaabil Preponed
Roshan adds, “Whatever dates we are taking, they are following us. I would have never done the same. I belong to an old school of filmmaking and I have given 50 years of my life to the industry. I would never release my film on a day when another filmmaker has already announced their film. I decided to remove Krrish 4 also from Christmas 2018 because I saw SRK’s film is coming that day. I could have easily released my film with Befikre or even with Dangal if I had to clash. But when I announced the film in February, I saw a clean window in January and hence I picked the date. I can’t get into this new groove of things because I don’t understand it.”
Roshan said that his distributors will decide whether its better to release the film from 25th evening or from morning itself. “It’s a full fledged release on January 25 and not just paid previews. Now that the other film is following my release date, it’s up to my distributors to take a call – whether to release from 6 pm or right from the morning shows.”
Meanwhile, at the trailer launch of Raees, its male lead SRK said that the release date was decided upon long ago.
“We had actually decided about the release date long back. First both the films were going to release on January 26, so we had decided with our exhibitors and distributors about coming out on January 25”
“I guess Kaabil is coming out in the evening shows of January 25 and we would be coming on the regular shows on the same day. There is nothing like we decided later… it is a wise decision to take note that January 26 is a holiday. We thought it would be better to let people know about the release date through our trailer.”
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SRK seemed to suggest that clashes like this could be avoided if India had more theatres. “I may be wrong with numbers. I have heard that in England there is one theatre for ten thousand people and in America there are ten theatres for one thousand people. India has a shortage of theatres. There should be more theatres in small towns and cities.”
“In China, the films do three to five times more than our business and that is because of the number of theatres. We are trying to have a new chain and more theatres. In America and London, you don’t hear of clash as there are more theatres.”
In Kaabil, Hrithik Roshan and Yami Gautam play a visually challenged couple who are terrorised by gangsters. Roshan then goes on a killing spree, to avenge the honour of his wife.
Meanwhile, Raees has SRK as a bootlegger in liquor free Gujarat, while Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, the female lead in the film, plays SRK’s lover. Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays a police officer with a personal vendetta against SRKshan’s.