15 August,2026 07:59 AM IST | Mumbai | Priyanka Sharma
Sunny Deol in ‘Batwara 1947’. Pics/Youtube
Batwara 1947 and Awarapan 2 clashed at the box office on August 14. But the competition heated up even before the movies hit the screens. While Emraan Hashmi's action drama had a stronger start - reportedly selling over 1, 20,000 tickets for the opening day against 20,000 of Sunny Deol's partition drama - the distribution of shows has been almost equal. This has led to speculation of "unfairness" as PVR-Inox has doubled up as the distributor of director Rajkumar Santoshi's Batwara 1947.
When mid-day reached out to Bihar-based exhibitor Vishek Chauhan for his view on the matter, he said, "I'd call it conflict of interest because naturally, PVR-Inox will push for more shows of Batwara 1947. There will be that bias."
Emraan Hashmi in âAwarapan 2'
He, however, noted that the bias isn't strong enough to alter the fate of Awarapan 2, which is the audience's initial pick. "The issue arises when PVR becomes too big. But right now, it has about 1700 screens," he said, indicating that other cinema chains and single screen cinemas may level the playing field.
Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi said giving films like Batwara 1947 a fighting chance despite their slow start has its upside, as seen in Main Vaapas Aaunga's case.
That said, he is confident that PVR-Inox will have to listen to the audience's demands after a point. "The muscle flexing can happen on the opening weekend, but PVR's core business is running cinemas. If Awarapan 2 gets them more revenues, as a listed company, it will do what it takes to optimise its core business," Rathi said.
