Kaabil, Raees get same number of screens

The battle-lines are now drawn. Rahul Dholakia’s Raees and Rakesh Roshan and Sanjay Gupta’s Kaabil have obtained an equal number of theatres across the country, thereby providing further proof of the fact that this indeed is the toughest box office battle since Gadar and Lagaan.

A senior executive of a leading movie chain in Maharashtra says, “We are going to be screening an equal number of shows for Kaabil and Raees from Wednesday. Both are massy blockbuster-type films with top actors helming the project. Furthermore the supporting cast in both are strong too, Nawazuddin and Mahira Khan in Raees make an interesting new combo with King Khan. In Kaabil, Hrithik has the powerful Ronit Roy and his brother Rahul, plus Yami Gautam, which is again a fresh mix of actors. Plus there is long weekend for Republic Day, so there’s enough room for audiences to warm up to both the film.”

Trade analyst Atul Mohan adds, “Yes, it is a battle of equals and to sum it up in one line all we can say is, may the Kaabil one become the Raees. But we have witnessed BO wonders in the past when two films have run successfully on the same Friday. We hope the same thing happens here.”

However Atul admits that the numbers are bound to get affected. “The maximum these two films together can make is around 300 crores. So it’s yet to be seen how this gets split between them. We can definitely expect fireworks.”