A Packed List of Releases This Christmas

The Christmas season is shaping up to be a busy one at the cinemas. If Akhanda 2 had released on December 5 as planned, many small films would have arrived the following week. But with the film hitting screens on December 12, several movies had no option but to push their release dates.

While Mowgli managed to release with just a one day gap, most other films moved away from that week. Many of them have now locked Christmas as their new target. The result is a packed festive window filled with mid range, small budget and dubbed films. With no big star film in the race, audiences are set to see a mini festival of releases.

Roshan Meka’s Champion and Aadi Saikumar’s Shambhala were already scheduled for Christmas and are sticking to their plans. To this list, several more films have now joined. The horror film Eesha, which was originally planned for December 12, has been shifted to December 25. Reports also say Annagaaru Vastaru has moved to the same festive slot.

Adding to the mix, Dandora, featuring Shivaji in the lead, is also aiming for a Christmas release. Kannada star Kichcha Sudeep’s new film Mark has entered the race as well and will release in Telugu too. Mohanlal’s experimental film Vrushhabha is also arriving during the same season, and with Geetha Arts handling the distribution, it is said to be in for a strong release. Along with these, small films like Pathang and Vanara have also chosen the holiday season.

Around eight films are getting ready to release in the last week of December. Since none of them are big budget films, and some are dubbing films, screen availability may not be a major issue. The real question now is which film will manage to grab audience attention and emerge as the festive winner.