The Pad-Yatra ….Battle  For The Screens Between Pad Man and Padmavati Begins, Emergency Meeting Between The 2 Factions

As  the battle  of  the  two ‘Pad’ movies Sanjay Leela  Bhansali’s Padmavati and  R Balki’s Pad Man for  screens and theatres  on January 25 begins,there is panic  in the movie trade.

On Monday theatre chains across  the  country were  not even informed yet about Padmavati’s release plans.

“We  have  no information on  the  release  of Padmavati on January 25 as  yet.We’re waiting  for the official  announcement, ” a leading personnel from  a multiplex  in Mumbai told  this writer. “If this is really true, then we  would have to re-structure the entire tentative  screening  schedule  for Republic Day. Ideally, Padmavati would get all the  5000-odd screens. But now  it will get approximately 2500 screens.Pad Man which would have otherwise  got  most of  the screens has  now to be content with  only 2500 screens.”

 “This  is  madness!”  expostulates a source  very close to Pad Man. “Why  January  25, for God’s sake? They(Padmavati) can come  a week earlier or a week later when there are no significant releases.Why Republic Day ?”

Apparently  the Pad Man team has initiated an emergency meeting with the Padmavati producers  to sort out the matter before Padmavatiproducers Viacom 18 Motion  Pictures make their official  announcement  of  their release date .

“We will try to reason with them, make them  understand why it’s insane to  pitch the two  films on the same Friday.  If they don’t listen we’ll still go ahead with our release  on January 25,” says  the Pad Man source.