Vicky Kaushal V/S Ayushmann Khurrana

It is a Catch 22 for many theatre owners and distributors as to which film to give precedence to. On February 21 — a week after the release of Kartik Aaryan’s movie Love Aaj Kal — will have two other young Turks, Ayushmann Khurrana as well as Vicky Kaushal battling it out at the box office with their respective films Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan and Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship.

All three actors are symbols of box office supremacy, in what they have achieved without any major player’s backing and their choice of offbeat subjects. But now they are left to lock horns in an open field, and it is not necessary that all of them will emerge as the winner. “Kartik holds a distinct advantage because his film came early. But the not-so-good reviews of the film may pull his film back and make it easier and a two-way clash week between Vicky and Ayushmann. Both these films are carrying good reports and they have a different market. Having said that, both these films have an overlap of a strong multiplex audience and that may end up disturbing the collections of either film,” a trade source explains. Both Vicky and Ayushmann are either pushing the boundaries or stepping out of their comfort zone with these two releases.

“Both of these films are a bit edgy in nature. Ayushmann’s film is about homophobia and homosexuality. They did get a positive response when they took the trailer to various parts of the country to ask people about their opinion whether they would watch a film like that, or whether a subject like that should be addressed. As for Bhoot, the film is a horror and a commercial one. Vicky has not played the lead in a proper commercial film if you take Uri: The Surgical Strike not just as a hero-driven film, because the nation was the hero in that movie. Secondly, he has not done a horror film. Horror films anyway have a limited market and they need to be made in certain budgets only,” adds our trade source.