The unexpected, unprecedented box office success of Mohit Suri’s romantic drama Saiyaara, starring newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, took the film industry by surprise. It prompted Ajay Devgn to push his new release, Vijay Kumar Arora’s comedy Son of Sardaar 2, by a week from July 25 to August 1 in order to ensure enough screens for his long-awaited sequel.
However, as Saiyaara continues its dominant run, with last week’s release following closely, it looks like Son of Sardaar 2 won’t get the number of screens it was aiming for, especially in the single screens or non-national cinema chains. While PVRINOX is trying to get 60% of shows across all Indian screens, it may just have to settle for a meagre 35%.
As per a Pinkvilla report, Son of Sardaar 2 distributors PVRINOX has been insisting on four shows a day from single screens. However, many of these single screens have decided to skip Son of Sardaar 2 altogether to have more shows of both Saiyaara and Ashwin Kumar’s animated mythological film Mahavatar Narsimha, which is presented by Hombale Films, the production house behind pan-India blockbusters like KGF and Kantara.
Saiyaara, which released on July 18, is now in its second week, but in no mood to slow down. It’s collected Rs 266 crore at the domestic box office in just 12 days. It’s also become the highest-grossing Hindi film starring newcomers. It’s backed by Aditya Chopra’s Yash Raj Films, which famously jostled with Devgn Films back in 2012 when the first part, Ashwni Dhir’s Son of Sardaar, released in cinemas.
Devgn sued YRF for illegally snatching away screens from Son of Sardaar on Diwali in favour of Yash Chopra’s romantic drama Jab Tak Hai Jaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, and Anushka Sharma. YRF had struck a deal with cinemas across the country in which they had to give majority screens to Jab Tak Hai Jaan in advance while buying YRF’s previous blockbuster, Kabir Khan’s spy thriller Ek Tha Tiger, starring Salman Khan and Katrina.
Along with Saiyaara, Mahavatar Narsimha is also proving to be a formidable competition to Son of Sardaar 2. The film has already collected Rs 29.35 crore in just five days of run at the domestic box office. To make matters worse, Shazia Iqbal’s romantic drama Dhadak 2, starring Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri, is also releasing in cinemas this Friday on August 1.
Like Son of Sardaar 2, Dhadak 2 is also a sequel — to Shashank Khaitan’s 2018 hit Dhadak — albeit with a new cast and director. The production house, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, is going the Kesari 2 way with this film. It’s releasing only in 1000 screens across India, focusing on the urban centres, with more screens expected to add in case the word of mouth is in their favour. In order to attract footfalls, both the new releases — Son of Sardaar 2 and Dhadak 2 — are offering 50% discounts on ticket prices using certain coupon codes.
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With all these odds stacked against Son of Sardaar 2, as of now, the film is expected to rake in an opening day domestic figure in single digits — in the range of Rs 6 to Rs 9 crore. That’s not only a massive drop from the opening day figure of Devgn’s last release, Raj Kumar Gupta’s thriller Raid 2 (Rs 19 crore) earlier this year, but even a decline from the opening day figure of Son of Sardaar (Rs 10 crore+) back in 2012.
