“Commando 2: The Black Money Trail” producer Vipul Shah is unfazed that his movie released with Hollywood star Hugh Jackman’s “Logan” in India on March 3. At the same time, he feels the clamour for proper release dates is getting unmanageable in the country.
Director James Mangold’s “Logan” has opened to a promising box office response all over India.
“Every film has its own destiny. I agree both ‘Logan’ and ‘Commando 2’ are action films. But ‘Logan’ is a Hollywood film. Even if they’ve released a dubbed Hindi version, it is still not a desi film. I’d like to believe that our audiences would like to see Vidyut Jammwal do his stunts as much as they’d like to see Hugh Jackman do his action, if not more,” Shah said.
“Our film is certified U/A by the censor board, which means kids can watch it. ‘Logan’ is for adults only. This naturally limits their viewership, no matter how much curiosity and interest people have in their film,” he added.
Shah also feels helplessness about the release date.
“We were supposed to release ‘Commando 2’ in January. Then the financial crisis after the demonetization happened. We had to move forward to March as February was booked with biggies like ‘Jolly LLB 2’ and ‘Rangoon’. We zeroed in on March 17 since there was ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’ on March 10.
“Then Ram Gopal Varma decided to release ‘Sarkar 3’ on March 17. We decided we’d rather take on ‘Logan’ and ‘Hugh Jackman’ on March 3 than Mr Bachchan on March 17. Now of course, ‘Sarkar 3’ has moved forward.”
“There is nowhere for filmmakers to run to. We have to face the competition. And if ‘Commando 2’ is destined to be liked more than ‘Logan’, nothing can stop it,” he added.
By Subhash K. Jha
