Karachi:
Bollywood movie Baadshaho will release in Pakistan on September 8 after it was delayed to avoid any competition for domestic movies that were released on Eid.
Ajay Devgn starrer Baadshaho was due to be released on Eid in Pakistan but now its release date has been set for September 8.
Insiders in the cinema industry said that the Pakistani filmmakers have been increasing pressure on distributors and exhibitors to not release any big budget Indian film on Eid holidays when most of the big Pakistani films were released this year.
"To ensure that there was no competition for the two big Pakistani films, Punjab Nahi Jaongee(PNJ) and Na Maloom Afraad 2 (NMA2) no screen was allocated for Badshaho," one insider said.
He said PNJ was released on Eid on 1,200 screens in Pakistan and NMA2 on 1,500 screens.
"With these two films capturing all the screens obviously there was no sense in releasing Baadshaho," a well known film distributor said.
The decision to delay the release of the Indian film has resulted in good business for both the Pakistani films which have raked in crores.
While PNJ earned around 5.3 crores in Pakistan on the first two Eid holidays, NMA 2 box office collections for first two days was 6.10 crores.
"For the first time both the Pakistani films also got a worldwide release and did good business," the distributor said.
Both the movies are expected to touch around 20 crores each in their first week collections.
Even in June on Eid-ul-Fitr, some influential Pakistani filmmakers used their influence to block the release of the latest Salman Khan starrer, Tubelight in Pakistani cinema halls for Eid fearing they would lose out on big business.
