By Joginder Tuteja
Finally, there is good news for Bollywood and its fans. The government has issued a new SOP and as per that theatres can now play movies at 100% occupancy. The rule applies to both multiplexes as well as single screens, which means finally it can be business as usual for the filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors. One can now well wait for a flurry of announcements coming from the producers and first in line is set to be Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi, which has been one biggie waiting in line for a year. Here are the 10 important developments related to the film.
- The film is aiming to release on Friday, 2nd April. This way it will benefit from the Good Friday holiday. Easter falls on Sunday, 4th April, and there would be a bit of advantage coming from that as well. An official announcement around the release date would be made soon
- It is nothing short of poetic justice for the biggie as its promo was the last to arrive, before the pandemic resulted in lockdown, and now it would be the first to release, as the lockdown pertaining to theatres has been lifted. At that time the film was aiming for release on 24th March and now it would be exactly one year and one week later that it would be hitting the screens
- Back then it was also meant to be the first ever film for which the shows would have begun early in the morning and go till late in the night. Premium multiplexes had started bracing up for that and an announcement promo around the same was also put together for Sooryavanshi. It has to be seen whether talks around the same would be resumed as well, considering the hype around the film
- Though there was quite some temptation for Akshay Kumar, Rohit Shetty and Reliance to release the film straight on OTT and some unheard of amount was being offered to them in order to bypass the theatrical release, they stuck to their guns right through. For a film where even the promo was out and had met with a good response, they chose to wait for a year rather than biting the bait
- With no competition whatsoever from past or present and distributors as well as exhibitors pining their hope on the action flick for a really long time, rest assured all screens at disposal would be made available for Sooryavanshi for its arrival. The film is set to be Akshay Kumar’s biggest release till date and one can expect its arrival at over 5000 screens
- Post an official announcement is made, a new theatrical promo of the film is expected to be released. There would also be a messaging around how audiences have waited patiently for the film for so long and Sooryavanshi is set to entertain them to the fullest
- Though Akshay Kumar is shooting non-stop at Jaisalmer for Bachchan Pandey, he has already started planning his dates for the promotion of Sooryavanshi. With two months to go for the release of the film, he is going all out to ensure that there is massive buzz and hype around the film en route release
- This is for the first time ever in his career that there would be a gap of over 15 months between his two theatrical releases. The last time a biggie of his arrived in theatres, that was in December 2019 when Good Newwz hit the screens. Otherwise, he usually comes at an interval of three to fourth months every year
- With plans in place to release Sooryavanshi in theatres first, Reliance would soon be announcing the plans for their other biggie ‘83 as well. The Ranveer Singh starrer too has waited patiently for a year and that is now expected to release two months after Sooryavanshi so that there is good monetisation for both
- Unless there is another biggie that decides to release between Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi and Salman Khan’s Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai (which is set for Eid release around 13th May), former will have a clean run of at least five weeks, hence promising bountiful of moolah for all involved
