The Eid holidays have always been the hour of Salman Khan when his biggest blockbusters are released. Last year, Bajrangi Bhaijaan which came out in this timeframe went on to become his biggest blockbuster ever. In the years before that, Wanted, Dabangg, Kick, Bodyguard and Ek Tha Tiger have all clocked stupendous numbers at the box office.
This year will see the release of Salman’s movie Sultan during Eid. But there was slight twist in the tale because many months earlier it was announced that Shah Rukh Khan would also release his movie Raees at the same time.
This was something of a bolt out of the blue because there has really no movies of the Khans that have clashed at the same time for many years now. People wondered why Shah Rukh was being so foolhardy. Traditionally, his big movies get released during the festival of Diwali while Aamir has the Christmas-New Year weekend to himself. This unsaid understanding that none of the Khans would infringe on the others’ dates had been adhered to until Shah Rukh decided to change the plan.
Raees’s promos also started airing recently adding to the sentiment that this would be a clash unlike anything seen in modern times at the box office. But, once again somewhat unexpectedly, wiser sense seems to have prevailed in the Shah Rukh camp and they have decided to postpone the Raees release to January of next year. The reason is more or less self-evident.
After a high of blockbusters like Chennai Express and Happy New Year, Shah Rukh’s last two movies Dilwale and Fan have both been very average by his standards. If Raees is not a superhit, then his stock is definitely on the way down. And if Sultan is a superhit at the same time then it will be an added humiliation that Shah Rukh can well live without.
But there was one more twist to the story. Because as it turns out January 2017 when Raees releases is also when an Ajay Devgn movie called Baadshaho come out. Shah Rukh and Ajay have clashed before at the box office when their Jab Tak Hain Jaan and Son of Sardaar hit the screens simultaneously.
It was a bitter encounter with Ajay complaining about theatres being monopolised unfairly by Shah Rukh’s movie. But this time Ajay’s movie is being postponed and so this clash too will be avoided. All in all, a lot of delicate maneuverings happening over releases.
Patch up?
In a season of breakups, at least there is one couple who might be having a rethink on having parted ways. Anushka Sharma had some time back called off the relationship with the cricketer Virat Kohli. The reason, according to the gossip mill, was that Kohli had ideas of marriage and Anushka had not wanted to compromise on her career at this point.
When he gave up on a cricket series to be with her, she had gone to take part in a shooting schedule. Soon it was confirmed that even if the exact reasons were not certain, the break up had happened. But now something seems to be brewing on the reconciliation front.
Recently, they were spotted together having dinner. And now it turns out that Kohli had again followed Anushka on Twitter and Instagram. After the breakup he had unfollowed her. So strong indications that they might be together again.
Banking on the Khans
Katrina Kaif desperately needs to show some success given that her last two movies Phantom and Fitoor flopped and that is not exactly good news for an actress who is 32. To remain relevant and in demand, she has to either pull of some sensational performances in high brow movies or have blockbusters under her belt.
The first option is out of the questions because, all said and done, Katrina is not gifted with great acting skills. So she needs hits. Her next movie Jagga Jasoos is mired in personal issues that she and Ranbir Kapoor, he co-actor in it, have due to their break up.
Also with Ranbir’s career also not under the weather, it is not certain whether the movie itself will do any wonders. Katrina’s answer to her problem is however being solved by Salman Khan, whom she used to date and is still close friends with.
News has just come that she will be in a movie, Tubelight, with him. It will be directed by Kabir Khan and the last time the three had worked together was on Ek Tha Tiger, which went on to be superhit. Interestingly the actress she replaced in Tubelight was Deepika Padukone, who first took up the role but later apparently changed her mind. Katrina has for long been behind Deepika in the race to be Bollywood’s leading actress. Katrina also has a movie with Shah Rukh, and even that might notch her one more superhit. While it is true that movies with Khans in them have the actress in a peripheral role, that probably doesn’t matter for Katrina at this point.
Name dropping
On another front, a couple’s separation seems to be all but final. Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora Khan had had a marriage that had seemed very stable. Recently they even hosted a reality television show together called Power Couple and it turned out be ironical because some time later they announced the decision to separate.
Recently, Arbaaz put up an Instagram image of a black background on which these words were written, ‘Some day you’ll look back and understand why it all happened the way it did.’ And then he put a caption to it with these words, ‘Waiting for that day’. People thought he was still coming to terms with the separation.
On the other hand Malaika seems to be very clear on the finality of the move. Recently, at an event, just before she entered the stage, she told the organisers to not add Khan to her name and only to address her as Malaika Arora.
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Raees has been moved to a January 2017 release to avoid clash with Sultan.
