For once film exhibitors are breathing sigh of relief about the length of the films on release on August 11. Although at 3 hours and fortytwo minutes Lal Singh Chadha lives up to Aamir Khan’s tradition of lengthy films , next week’s other major Hindi release Raksha Bandhan is just a 100 minutes in length,which makes it, arguably, the shortest film of Akshay Kumar’s career.
Exhibitors are much relieved.
Says Roshan Singh a prominent exhibitor from Bihar, “Aamir Khan’s films are known to be lengthy. So we were prepared for Lal Singh Chadha to be a long film. But we also thought Raksha Bandhan would be lengthy, since Akshay Kumar’s recent films have all been over-long. However the length of the two films, one long the other short, now makes it possible for us to screen an equal number of shows for both films.”
Which of the two films does Bihar’s film exhibitor Suman Sinha see as the better bet? “Hard to say. Aamir has a staunch viewership. Akshay’s recent films have bombed. But Raksha Bandhan is releasing on Raksha Bandhan, so it will get a tailormade customized audience. Both films have long weekends beginning Thursday August 11 to consolidate their positions.”