When Vinod Shah went to buy tickets at the nearest multiplex for Friday's release Welcome, he was in for a rude shock. He was turned away from the Mumbai multiplex, as he was told that the Akshay Kumar-starrer was not going to be released there. And that particular multiplex wasn't the only one.
Multiplexes across the country have refused to release both Welcome and Taare Zameen Par because the owners refused to bow down to the demands made by distributors this time. The tussle between the two have continued through the years whenever a big release was on its way.
This Friday too, distributors demanded the same revenue sharing as they did for Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om. But the multiplex owners have decided to put their foot down.
Welcome seems to have got a worse fate than Taare Zameen Par. Aamir Khan's Taare did not have a problem with the PVR chain of cinemas, as they are the presenters of the film.
"There was a problem about showing Welcome initially, but we will start the Welcome shows now," Sanjeev K Bijli, owner of PVR, says. Though the problem has been sorted, Bijli did not want to reveal the details.
In fact, PVR will be the only multiplex to screen Welcome today, according to Sandeep Bhargava, chief of Indian Film Company, the official worldwide distributor of Welcome. "Welcome will be shown only in PVR cinemas, as the decision for the other multiplexes has not come in yet," he says.
But the situation has only partially improved.
Vishal Anand, vice president (marketing), Fun Republic, a Mumbai multiplex, says, "Taare will be released from the 2 pm shows today. But negotiations for Welcome are still on."
Dhananajay, the booking assistant of another Mumbai multiplex, Movietime, claims they have still not started screening both Welcome and Taare Zameen Par. "The decision to show both the films will only come after 2 pm," he said.
