The Delayed Release Of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati Results In At least 200 Crore Loss For Bollywood

What could well have turned out to be a remarkable year for Bollywood will now result in a rather underwhelming one, what with Padmavati release getting delayed indefinitely. Though till about a week back it had seemed that the film could well release in December, utter silence around any progress whatsoever means it is pretty much a given that it would be 2018 arrival for it after all!

A sad situation indeed because with this move, 2017 has been deprived of at least 200 crore worth of moolah that could have been added to its overall tally.

The spiral effect of this delay is much bigger than what it seems actually. Reason being that now the applecart is getting disturbed and as a result of that at least 50-100 crore more are at stake.

How? Well, this is how!

Last release of 2017 is Tiger Zinda Hai and had Padmavati released as per schedule on 1st December, the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film would have more or less exhausted its run by the time the Salman Khan - Katrina Kaif film would have arrived on 22nd December. That would have meant a five week clear play for Tiger Zinda Hai since PadMan and Aiyaary the only major releases in the first month of the New Year and that too on 26th January.

That won't be the case anymore since Padmavati could well be arriving somewhere in between Tiger Zinda Hai and PadMan. Now that would be counter-productive for the Ali Abbas Zafar directed action drama since the clear run is bound to be interrupted, what with audience attention shifting to Padmavati. Clearly, a case of loss of revenue for the film.

Moreover, if Padmavati decides to actually release on 26th January then it would be impact the party for PadMan as well as Aiyaary because at least one of them would then decide to move ahead. Former is a bigger film but then the impact would also be bigger. Hence, the sense of uncertainty stays.   

As for the many smaller films that would be arriving in the interim period, there is uncertainty of a different level since now they can't even plan a release date for themselves. Rest assured, the day when Padmavati decides to arrive, a smaller film can't even think of squeezing in since there just won't be any screens available. Hence, makers of these films could well be twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the final release announcement of the Deepika Padukone , Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor film since it holds the key for rest of Bollywood.

No wonder, a few filmmakers could well be wondering that had there been an intimation around Padmavati not quite releasing in December, at least they could well have chosen December as the month of arrival and made best use of the time period which is considered to be lucrative for the film business.

While there are ifs and buts galore, the fact remains that Bollywood has lost a golden opportunity and the industry would well fall short of at least 200 crore when the yearend report card comes out.