The game of screens

As the battle for  screens and theatres  on January 25 between Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavat and  R. Balki’s Padman begins, there is panic  in the film industry. On Monday, theatre chains across the country were not even informed yet about Padmavat’s release plans.

“We have no information on Padmavat releasing on January 25 as yet. We’re waiting for the official announcement, “ a leading personnel from a multiplex in Mumbai said. “If this is really true, then we would have to re-structure the entire tentative screening schedule for Republic Day. Ideally, Padmavat would get all the 5,000-odd screens. But now, it will get approximately 2,500 screens. Padman, which would have otherwise got most of the screens, has now to be content with only 2,500 screens.”

 “This is madness!”  sighs a source very close to Padman. “Why January  25, for God’s sake? They (Padmavat) can come a week earlier or a week later when there are no significant releases. Why Republic Day?”

Apparently, the Padman team has initiated an emergency meeting with the Padmavat producers to sort out the matter before the latter movie’s producers, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, make their official announcement of their release date.

“We will try to reason with them, make them understand why it’s insane to pitch the two films on the same Friday.  If they don’t listen, we’ll still go ahead with our release on January 25,” says the Padman source.