Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan are all set to clash at the box office with their respective movies, Raees and Kaabil. Makers of both the movies have been busy promoting their films. However, it appears that the makers of Kaabil have indirectly been promoting Raees as well.
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Kaabil Producer Rakesh Roshan and director Sanjay Gupta have been making comments of late that indirectly may work in favour of Raees. While the hype around Shah Rukh's film is already high, Rakesh and Sanjay's statements in the recent past may appear as free promotions for the makers of Raees.
Firstly, the makers of Kaabil had shifted the release date of the Hrithik-starrer from January 26 to January 25, that clearly proved that they did not want a clash at the box office with Raees. However, the makers of Raees then again had shifted their release date to the same day, making the clash even more intense.
Now, if we look back at some of the comments by the makers of Kaabil in the past, it appears that Raees makers have been enjoying free promotions by the other party.
"Shah Rukh should be looking at getting Rs 300 crore for his film and I am sure he is looking at that possibility. I don't understand why he would restrict the business of his own film. This clash is also going to be detrimental to them," Sanjay had told Deccan Chronicle on November 29. This statement suggests that even Sanjay believes that Raees has the potential of earning Rs 300 crore at the box office.
Then Rakesh said that he had met Shah Rukh multiple times to convince him to change the date of their release that suggested that the makers of Kaabil are sure that Raees will badly affect the collection of Hrithik's film.
"This February I planned the release of Kaabil. My film was getting over in August. I had October, November and December to release the film. But when I saw all the films which were releasing on these dates, I said I will not want to clash and so I looked into January then. In January, we had a clean slate. So we announced the film in January. Now all of a sudden in the last month or so, I also learnt that they were also planning to come on the same date.
"So I met SRK and explained it to him that there is a well and we both are jumping into it. Because there is a box office limitation of not crossing Rs 300 crore. Either you will be at Rs 170 crore and I at Rs 130 crore or vice versa. I also told him Hrithik is not your contemporary. Your contemporaries are Salman Khan and Aamir Khan who have already crossed Rs 300 crore. So it is better that we don't clash and you choose some other date. He understood and then he again announced it to clash with our film.
I met him again and tried to tell him but again and again when I met him, I got the impression that they were thinking that I am scared and that is why I am telling all these things. On the contrary, I was as a businessman trying to tell them that two big films should not come together," Rakesh had told The Indian Express on December 8.
Hrithik Roshan too had made a statement comparing Raees with big Hollywood projects. "It's not illegal or unethical, so it's fine. But it is sad and quite an eye-opener that although Hollywood and Bollywood share the same calendar, you will never see Batman movies clashing with Superman films or Lord of the Rings clashing with Harry Potter.
They manage their calendars so well that two movies will never clash. They are aware that this is best for the industry, because when two films clash, the returns for the industry fall a lot," The Times of India had quoted Hrithik as saying on December 27.
Although it is well known that Raees is a big budget movie, it is not always confirmed that any big budget film with big star would have the potential to become a hit. The best example for this is Mohenjo Daro. Nevertheless, with statements like these from the makers of Kaabil, people may already believe that Raees is a good movie that should not be missed.
