Clash of the Titans: Salman’s Radhe to clash with Akshay’s Laxxmi Bomb and Fast and Furious 9

Clash of the Titans: Top big banners to clash at the box office.

Salman Khans’s upcoming film Radhe will clash with Akshay Kumar’s Laxxmi Bomb and the next version of Fast and Furious.

For the last several years, Salman Khan has been releasing his films on Eid, and this year also its not going to be any different.

While Salman Khan’s film may not be affected by Akshay Kumar’s film, Fast and Furious 9 could give him some serious competition. Fast and Furious films have always done good business in India, and the makers would be hoping for the same this year as well.

Fast and Furious 9 stars Vin Diesel, John Cena and other actors.

Padmavat and Pad-man

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavat’s clash with Akshay Kumar’s Pad-man was averted after Akshay decided to delay his film’s release as he felt Bhansali and his team had suffered a lot because of the protests. However, insiders say that the Padman team was worried about competing with Padmaavat, with the director saying he did not want the message of the movie to be lost in the competition.

“It’s insanity. We announced the release date for Pad Man six month ago. Now for them to jump in with Padmavat at this late hour is absurd. I am still hoping they will change their mind and release later,” a source close to Pad Man still can’t believe that Padmavat will release on Republic Day.

Also Read: This is how much Bollywood loses every year because of same-day clashes.

Clashes in the Past

When two big banners clash at the box office, usually there’s lot of negativity around with each party trying to get an upper hand.

During the Ae Dil Hai Mushkil vs Shivaay clash, Ajay Devgn had tweeted that self-styled critic Kamaal R Khan was paid (presumably by Dharma Productions) to make negative comments about Shivaay on social media and to say good things about ADHM. Anurag Kashyap, however felt that it seemed like a “created” thing so that more people would talk about the two films.

Business insiders say that, ultimately, the quality of the film is the deciding factor, as was seen in the battle of the much hyped Dilwale with Bajirao Mastani. Although both the films had to lose some business, Bajirao Mastani prevailed in the battle eventually.

Bollywood’s top stars, SRK and Salman Khan were set to clash this Eid 2016, but Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Raees got postponed. Then Sultan was supposed to clash with Kabali but Kabali was released a week later. The good thing was that both Sultan and Kabali did good business at the box-office.

Also Read: Is Salman Khan, Bollywood’s Answer to Rajinikanth?

Sultan & Raees Clash

For a long time, ‘Sultan’ & ‘Raees’ makers stuck to their release dates; in fact, the makers of Sultan were in a MAD RUSH to meet their Eid release deadline.

Aditya Chopra had instructed ‘Sultan’ director Ali Abbas to make sure the movie was on schedule, and everyone, including the stars, were slogging it out to ensure the film met the Eid release deadline.

Salman’s reply on the clash
Here’s what Salman had to say about the clash…”It is perhaps the best thing to happen. There will be more excitement for fans. I think people will save money from now on, to see both the movies! SRK and I will work much harder and pray that both films will be better. I love Shah Rukh a lot and I don’t think he needs to worry at all because the last time our movies came together he had beaten me. So, even if Sultan and Raees are releasing on the same day, loss mera hi hoga.”

The possible clash had caused lot of excitement though, and people were wondering who would blink first, considering both are superstars, with huge fans, and of-course huge egos 🙂

People were already speculating as to who would emerge the winner, although industry insiders were hoping that the two Khans would talk to each other and try to get one of the movies pushed to another date, as two big releases at the same time is always bad for business (both Dilwale & Bajirao Mastani did good business but trade experts felt that both films could easily have made another Rs.15-20 crore had they been solo releases.)

Thankfully, the much-awaited clash will not happen (perhaps the debacle of SRK’s Fan made him reconsider his earlier decision).

Their last encounter
The last time the two Khans clashed against each other was in 2006, when Shahrukh Khan’s ‘Don’ and Salman’s ‘Jaan-e-mann’ were released on the same dates. Back then, Salman’s movie was no match to SRK’s and Don walked away with all the accolades (and also the moolah); Jaan-e-mann, directed by Shirish Kunder, on the other hand, was a critical and commercial disaster.

However, back then, it was a different Salman Khan. Salman’s fortunes post ‘Wanted’ have changed, and today anything that he touches turns to gold. Nowadays ‘Bhai’ is known to set new records at Box office with every new movie that he features in.

On the other hand, Shahrukh’s movies of-late have been doing average collections at the box-office.

Here are some big Bollywood clashes from the past.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan vs Bahubali

Despite India going gaga over Rajamouli’s ‘Bahubali’, Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan went on to become one of Bollywood’s highest grossing movies.

Some analysts expected Bahubali to eat into Bajrangi Bhaijaan’s collection as they felt those who prefer to watch a movie over the weekend, and are not die-hard fans of Salman Khan could opt for Bahubali over Kabir Khan directed Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

However, that didn’t happen. Bajrangi Bhaijaan kept on galloping at the box office, breaking records along the way. It recently crossed the Dhoom3 box office collection becoming the second highest grosser of all times In Bollywood, next only to PK.

This clearly showed that Salman’s fan-base is super-strong.

Competing With an SRK Flick

Though nobody anticipated such a huge response to Chennai Express, once it did well in the opening weekend, it became comparatively easier for the producers to capitalize on the subsequent festive holidays. The fact that Chennai Express was released during Eid, followed by Independence day, followed by Raksha Bandhan also helped in the collections. Offers such as “1 ticket free with every 2 tickets” were also offered during Raksha Bandhan.

So is it a wise decision to release your films alongside an SRK flick? Probably not (at least that was the case until a few years back)!

You can ask Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sajid Nadiadwala, and lately Ekta Kapoor!

Besides a tremendous fan following, King Khan also has exceptional promotional skills and the ability to sense the pulse of the public.

Here are some of the movies that have been crushed by an SRK starrer in the past.

“Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaraa” was completely run over by the pace of Chennai Express. While Ekta may cry foul, it seemed to be history repeating itself.

“Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” (Karan Johar’s debut film with the King Khan) was pitted against “Bade Miyan Chote Miyan” (Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda combo) few years back. But the Karan Johar debut film eventually had the last laugh.

Saawariya (Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali & Ranbir Kapoor’s debut film) also met with a similar fate against “Om Shanti Om” (Farah Khan / SRK).

All these seem to suggest that when it comes to a box office clash, SRK will go all-out to make sure his film delivers, and is the first choice for cine-goers not just in India, but all over the world. Besides, SRK seems to love competition and a clash brings out the best in SRK’s creativity as well.

However, all this is not possible without SRK’s huge fan following, and they always respond in huge numbers by supporting his releases during a clash.

Lagaan vs Gadar-Ek Prem Katha

In 2001, Aamir Khan’s Lagaan and Sunny Deol-starrer Gadar-Ek Prem Katha clashed with each other and every body felt that the two movies will eventually suffer losses.

But that was not to be!

Lagaan and Gadar made Rs.25 crore and Rs.43 crore, respectively, shattering this myth.