Ranbir’s ‘Animal’ to face competition from Vicky’s ‘Sam Bahadur’

MUMBAI: Seems like the second half of 2023 will turn out to be an exciting phase for movie lovers.

From Karan Johar’s directorial ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, Sunny Deol’s ‘Gadar 2’ to Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jawan’ and Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Animal’, projects ranging across different genres are all set to hit the theatres in the coming months.

Interestingly, the audience will get a chance to see box office clashes between big projects.

On August 11, Sunny Deol’s ‘Gadar 2’ is all set to face competition from Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘OMG 2’. Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Animal’ was initially scheduled to release on August 11, and would have gone head-to-head with ‘Gadar 2’ and ‘OMG 2’.

However, on Monday, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga announced the new release date of ‘Animal’. The film is now all set to be released on December 1.

Taking to Twitter, Sandeep posted a video explaining his decision to postpone the film.

Why we are not able to release the film on August 11? The only reason is the quality. It might sound like a generic answer, generic reply but the fact is only quality… For example, there are seven songs in the film, when seven songs multiply into five languages it becomes 35 songs. 35 songs, different set of lyricists, different set of singers, it’s going to take a little more time than what I actually planned for.”

He also said, “I have lately realised or else I wouldn’t have released the pre-teaser. Thank you so much for the pre-teaser response. A few of them said it will not be in the film but it will be there in the film, it is a cut out of the film episode.”

Sandeep further said, “Coming back to the songs, the kind of lyrical value that we have achieved in Hindi I need to give the same kind of lyrical value in all different languages. For that, I really need to spend energy, time to get into all different languages. When it gets released in all different languages, I don’t want to give the feeling that it’s a Hindi-dubbed Tamil film, Hindi-dubbed Telugu film. It has to be like the regional cinema.”

He shared that ‘Animal’ will be released in theatres with the ‘best quality in terms of video, audio’.

‘Animal’ also stars Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna.

After averting a clash with Gadar 2, the film will now have a box-office face-off with Vicky Kaushal’s ‘Sam Bahadur’.

Helmed by Meghna Gulzar and produced by Ronnie Screwvala, ‘Sam Bahadur’ is the story of India’s war hero and first Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. The film also stars Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sana Sheikh in the lead roles.

Talking about the film, Vicky said, “I am fortunate to portray the role of a real-life hero and patriot who is still remembered and loved for his contributions to our country. There is a lot to learn and take back as an actor. With the amount of prep and hard work the whole team has put in, I am sure the audiences will be thrilled to watch Sam’s mesmerising journey to making India what it is today.”

Also releasing on the same day is Fukrey 3, the third instalment in the popular Fukrey franchise.

Both ‘Fukrey’ and ‘Fukrey Returns’ had audiences in splits and emerged as super hits at the box office in 2013 and 2017, respectively. Both the previous sequels were declared hits and received massive responses from the audiences.

The film introduced a lineup of iconic characters like Choocha (Varun Sharma), Hunny (Pulkit Samrat), Pandit Ji (Pankaj Tripathi), Bholi Punjaban (Richa Chadha) and more, all of whom are set to reunite on screen for ‘Fukrey 3’.There have been several delays for ‘Fukrey 3’. The movie’s initial release date was September 7–was intended to conflict with Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan. After that, it was pushed to November 24 and will now hit the theatres on December 1.

Now it is to see which film performs better at the box office.