Bang Bang! vs Haider: Theatre owners complain of production houses arm-twisting them

Hrithik Roshan-Katrina Kaif starrer Bang Bang! is going to hit more than 4,500 screens on 2 October leaving few screens for Shahid Kapoor’s Haider which is slated to release on the same date. While reports of Fox Star Studios (producer of Bang Bang!) and UTV Motion Pictures (producer of Haider) being embroiled in a bitter war over theatre screens has been doing the rounds, sources now say that screen share ratio of the two films is about 70:30, with Haider getting only 30 percent of the share. [caption id=“attachment_1737711” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Courtesy: Facebook[/caption] Theatre owners are already complaining of being arm-twisted by both production houses. Nitin Datar, VP, Cinema Owners Association told Times of India, “I have heard that both Fox Star Studios (Bang Bang) and UTV Motion Pictures (Haider) are threatening to withdraw business from us in the future if we do not give in to their demands.” Not just that, reportedly Fox Studios is also asking percentage profit from single screen theatre owners. Manoj Desai, owner of Gaiety, Galaxy and Maratha Mandir, said that this is the reason why they have not opened advance booking for Bang Bang! yet. However, the CEO of Fox Star Studios, Vijay Singh seems satisfied that Bang Bang! will have such a big release. Singh said, “On October 2, Bang Bang! will see the widest release ever for a Bollywood film across the world. Over 4500 screens across 50 countries, with record breaking no of screens in the USA, UK and the Middle East.” But his enthusiasm isn’t shared by multiplex owners. While there are some multiplexes that have started advance booking, most of them are waiting for the tiff to resolve. Meanwhile, Aparna Pandey, VP and Head of Marketing and Distribution, Disney India, maintained, “We have planned a release across 1100 theatres in India for Haider. Our showcasing will be based on our mapping of the theatre’s location and the audience we are targeting.”