The battle over screen allocation between Pushpa 2: The Rule and Baby John has become a hot topic in the film industry. Since Thursday, reports have surfaced about tension between the distributors of both films, Anil Thadani for Pushpa 2 and PVR Inox Pictures for Baby John.
The situation became more dramatic when it was revealed that advance bookings for Baby John were delayed in many cinemas because of the ongoing discussions.
According to reports, PVR Inox has requested 60% of the single-screen shows for their film, leaving only 40% for Pushpa 2. This has raised concerns from exhibitors and Pushpa 2’s distributor.
Baby John Producer On Delayed Advance Booking
During a recent conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Baby John producer Murad Khetani addressed the controversy. He reassured fans that the advance booking for his film would begin nationwide on Monday, December 23.
He shared, “There’s no issue. MovieMax, Miraj, Mukta etc. have also opened advances. There were some little things that needed to be taken care of, regarding programming. We need to go step-by-step and it takes time. Our distribution team has been working on it. Everything can’t be closed and arranged together.”
Reports also suggested that PVR Inox had already begun booking shows for both films on December 25, potentially giving their cinemas an unfair advantage.
Murad Khetani explained that other multiplexes follow the programming patterns of the national chains, which is why PVR, Inox, and Cinepolis started bookings first. Since PVR Inox is distributing the film, other chains wanted to see what they were requesting and are now adopting similar approaches in their theatres. Khetani clarified that PVR Inox started the advance bookings to show other multiplexes how many shows they were allocating to Baby John, hoping they would follow the same strategy. This was done to show they weren’t asking for too many shows for Baby John in their own cinemas.
Makers Of Varun Dhawan Starrer Demand 50-50 Allocations In Single Screens
On the hot topic of single-screen show-sharing, Khetani said “We are working on it as we need to take a lot of factors into consideration, including the film’s run time. Some single screens are okay with show-sharing while some are not. By Monday, December 23, it’ll be sorted. We are being very reasonable. We are asking for 50-50 show sharing. And if some theatres play 5 shows a day, then we are asking for 3 shows.”
Baby John will arrive in theatres on December 25. The makers are targeting the release across 3000 screens. The film stars Varun Dhawan, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi, and Jackie Shroff, with cameo appearances from Salman Khan and Sanya Malhotra.
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