Race 3 releases today on 15th June, the Eid weekend. Salman Khan has sort of monopolised the Eid release slot. His audience is intact whenever his films release, albeit, of course, it should not turn out to be a Tubelight. The Salman and Eid combination works for both his films as well as the audience. The audience expects a full on entertainer from Salman and, most of the time, he delivers. Why did an Eid release not work with Tubelight? It is not enough to be just be a Salman Khan, you’ve also got to deliver.

After abstaining for a month from any form of pleasure seeking and strict fasts kept by the devout, it is time to enjoy for the Muslims. This combination adds to the footfalls and the collections figures. Even when the Eid festival falls a day or two after the release, Salman has a captive audience to fill those pre Eid days.

It is not only about Eid and Salman Khan. There are also other important release slots for major star cast film. The most sought after are Diwali, the Independence Day, the Christmas weekend, Republic Day and, if they fall any day closer to the weekend, so much the better for the box office as the film gets an extended weekend.

Earlier, films happened to release during Eid, there was not so much emphasis on the date. Gradually, it was noticed that the festival added to the footfalls. The 2009 Salman Khan-starrer Wanted made it clear that not only did a film which released on Eid do well at the box office but it also was a sort of barometre when it came to setting audience trends.

Since then, Salman Khan films, as a regular strategy, are scheduled for an Eid release. Wanted was followed by Dabangg in 2010, Bodyguard in 2011,Ek Tha Tiger in 2012, Kick in 2014, Bajrangi Bhaijaan in 2015, Sultan in 2016 and Tubelight in 2017. Salman Khan had no film ready for release for Eid in 2013 and the slot was used up by Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express.

It is not only about Eid. This year Independence Day weekend is a bit crowded as three films are planned for release which include Akshay Kumar’s Gold, the Deols’ Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se and the John Abraham-Manoj Bajpai starrer Satyamev Jayate. Diwali releases are booked for YRF’s Thugs OfHindostan starring Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan while  the Christmas weekend has been booked for Shah Rukh Khan’s Zero. New Year Eve, 28th December, will see the release of Rohit Shetty film, Simmba with Ranvir Singh and debutant Sara Ali Khan in the lead.

There was a time when producers planned films for certain seasons and festivals. This selection catered to two communities, mainly. For post Ramzan Eid release, Muslim socials were made. And they did well. They sort of worked as a therapy to ease out of the pious fasting month. For the month of Shravan, the Hindu holy month, Hindu mythological films were made. In those days, no major filmmaker could plan the release of his film in advance since it took a year or two or even more to complete a film.

Now the stakes are high  and so are admission rates. Which, again, are increased for a big star film and during festival period. This is the time when people want to venture out to watch a film in a theatre no matter what it costs. So, don’t be surprised at the admission rates of Race 3.

There are these few stars like Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, ShahRukh Khan who use festivals as boosters. It is not a one-sided deal. It works well even for the multiplexes to improve on the number of footfalls as well as box office collections since for most of the rest of the year, they fare poorly on that count.

Meanwhile, a new breed of stars is emerging. We already have Ranvir Singh who has been lucky to work  with reputed productions houses which has worked well for him. Then there is Varun Dhawan, who is a star already but not yet in the Rs 200 or 300 crore range. Tiger Shroff may just manage to take over the Eid or Diwali slot but has his own set of limitations.

Ranbir Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan’s careers seem to have stagnated for a while now.

Salman Khan gets a solo release not only this Eid, his film, Bharat, has already been booked for Eid 2019.

The fact remains that if they did not enhance the admission rates to cash in on such festivals, these films would find it tough to reach the Rs 200 and 300 crore brackets.

@ The Box Office

*Dubbed South films don’t work in the Hindi belt. Except for pre-release media hype not much happens with them. Even if the film stars Rajanikant or Kamal Haasan, Southern heroes don’t enjoy much of a pull here. A Rajanikant film may have some viewers in places like Mumbai and Delhi, where there is considerable South Indian population. Kaala was much talked about till it released but there is no discussion about the film since it released, not even on social media. While the film is reported to be very weak in its original version as well, its Hindi dubbed version may struggle to cross the Rs 10 crore mark.

*Veere Di Wedding continues to do well in its second week and should close it with figures of about Rs 18 crore and take its two week total to approx. Rs 72 crore.

*Raazi should add about Rs 3 crore in its fifth week to take its five week tally to Rs 119 crore.