King Khan started the year with a bang and he clearly has the plans to end the year with the same energy. With Dunki’s release now just a few days away all his fans are already rushing for advance bookings. Well, amidst all this excitement, according to a report by Bollywood Hungama, Dunki’s distributor Pen Marudhar has reportedly demanded 100% showcasing in the single screens.
Marudhar has made this demand keeping in mind the clash with Prabhas’s Salaar for the extended Christmas 2023 period. However, now most of the distributors across the country are protesting against these demands made by the distributors of King Khan.
Bollywood Hungama quoted an exhibitor as saying, ‘Clashes have happened in the past too and its the right of every exhibitor to decide on his showcasing. How can they be unreasonable in demanding all four shows in single screens, when the opposition is also a mass friendly film? We are ready to favour Dunki and give it 3 shows as compared to 2 for Salaar. But it is absolutely unfair on the part of the Pen Marudhar to demand all the shows’.
The exhibitor further added if single screens refuse to open the first day bookings for Dunki, the team will any which way will be forced to agree to their demands.
He added, ‘We respect Shah Rukh Khan and hence are ready to prefer Dunki over Salaar but we can’t completely ignore the film. There are enquiries for Salaar and we have to balance out the showcasing for our audience. We thought the clashes have become civil in post-pandemic world – be it Gadar and OMG 2 or Animal and Sam Bahadur. We last faced such difficulties in Raees vs Kaabil’.
The exhibitor further said, ‘It doesn’t work this way. I hope this article reaches Shah Rukh Khan. Why are the multiplexes allowed to share shows? The practice should be the same for multiplexes and single screens. We want to play both Salaar and Dunki but are forced into playing just one’.