Shreyas Pande
Karan Johar's debut romantic-drama Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (KKHH) clashed with David Dhawan's action-comedy Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (BMCM) in 1998. While both the films performed well, KKHH fared better, making Rs 46.88 crore at the box-office compared to BMCM's Rs 19.05 crore.
In 2000, Shah Rukh Khan-Amitabh Bachchan headliner Mohabbatein earned Rs 41.88 crore, turning out to be the winner in a clash against Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s action-thriller Mission Kashmir, which minted Rs 22.83 crore.
Shah Rukh Khan’s second release of 2004 was the Yash Chopra musical Veer-Zaara, which earned over Rs 42.40 crore (Net) and became the highest-grossing Indian film of the year. Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra’s romantic-thriller Aitraaz released on the same day and managed to earn Rs 15.56 crore.
It was Shah Rukh Khan’s hyper-stylistic remake Don – The Chase Begins vs Salman Khan’s romantic-drama Jaan-E-Mann in the festive weekend of 2006. Don emerged as the clear winner making Rs 50.16 crore while Jaan-E-Mann bore the brunt of mixed reviews and turned out to be a box-office failure minting only Rs 24.95 crore.
Farah Khan’s reincarnation drama starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone stood alongside Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s romantic-musical Saawariya, which also marked the debut of Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. While the former turned out to be a blockbuster (Rs 78.25 crore), Saawariya became a box-office disaster (Rs 22.31 crore).
While Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion earned Priyanka Chopra a National Award, the film struggled to match the numbers of Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Returns which released during Diwali season in 2008. Fashion did a collection of Rs 26.25 crore whereas Golmaal Returns minted Rs 51.15 crore.
Rohit Shetty’s Diwali streak continued in 2010 with Golmaal 3 as it became a blockbuster, earning Rs 106.64 crore against Akshay Kumar-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s whimsical sci-fi comedy Action Replayy which just managed to collect Rs 29.06 crore.
Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn’s clash during the Diwali of 2011 became infamous as legal notices were sent and fiery words exchanged between producers of the two over allocation of screens. Eventually, both the films did well at the box-office with Jab Tak Hai Jaan making Rs 120.87 crore and Son of Sardaar minting Rs 105.11 crore.
Ajay Devgn was again at the center of a heated clash in 2016 as his directorial Shivaay released alongside Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Both the films did a similar box-office collection of Rs 100.45 crore (Shivaay) and Rs 113.19 crore (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil) respectively, but owing to the high-budget of the former (Rs 100 crore), it had a below average run.
This year is going to be yet another massive Diwali weekend with Kartik Aaryan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 clashing with Ajay Devgn’s Singham Again. Would it be the triumph of Rohit Shetty’s multi-starrer blend of Ramayana in the cop-franchise or the battle of two Manjulikas, Madhuri Dixit and Vidya Balan in the horror-comedy? Only time will tell.