Avalanche of releases this week, two Hindi films scamper out of the race

It s going to be crowded at the Indian box office again coming Friday, what with two Hindi releases, both featuring Tapsee Pannu competing with a slew of Oscar-nominated Hollywood films and two new Hollywood franchise films at the box office.

The Hindi films on release are both by debutant directors. Amit Roy s Running Shaadi is a comedy featuring Tapsee Pannu and Amit Sadh on the lines of Band Baaja Baaraat, while new director Sankalp Reddy helms the historical war adventure The Ghazi Attack in Hindi and Telugu. The film featuring Tapsee, Rana Daggubatti and K K Menon is produced by Karan Johar and will therefore corner a sizable number of screens and theatres. This leaves the week s third Hindi film Iraada bringing together the Ishqiya pair of Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi with little room to make its presence felt.

Clearly the centres of attraction this week are the Oscar-nominated films Moonlight, Silence and Hidden Figures, and also the new editions of John Wick Chapter 2, the follow-up film to the highly successful 2014 actioner featuring Keanu Reeves and the animation super-hero film The Lego Batman Movie which is expected to be a major global earner.

Perceiving the flurry of hyper-activity at the box office two Hindi films have been postponed. Shashi Sudigala s cyber-horror Mona Darling and Shekhar Jha s marital drama Wedding Anniversary which were scheduled for this week have been pushed to a later date.