By T N Ashok
The year’s cinema business will be settled between 5 November and Christmas Eve. Mumbai and Los Angeles have scheduled their largest bets into the same festive stretch, and the audience is limited. A mythological epic, a Shah Rukh Khan action film, two superhero-and-sci-fi giants and a Disney Thanksgiving original are all chasing the same holiday footfall.
Ramayana: Part 1 (5 November). Nitesh Tiwari (Dangal) directs a mythological epic with Ranbir Kapoor as Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana. Sunny Deol, Lara Dutta, Rakul Preet Singh and Arun Govil lead a large supporting cast. The film opens days before Diwali on 8 November and releases in five Indian languages.
DNEG, the Oscar-winning effects house owned by producer Namit Malhotra, handles the visuals. The score is a first-of-its-kind pairing of Hans Zimmer, in his Indian debut, and A.R. Rahman. The figure of ₹4,000 crore circulates for the two-part project, but the makers have not confirmed it. Part 1 is widely reported at roughly ₹835 crore, still the highest budget for an Indian film. Part 2 follows at Diwali 2027.
Gunmaster G9 (27 November). Aditya Datt directs this action romance, in which Emraan Hashmi fights to protect the woman he loves. Genelia D’Souza plays opposite him, and Aparshakti Khurana plays the villain. The music reunites Hashmi and Datt with composer Himesh Reshammiya, nearly two decades after Aashiq Banaya Aapne, and the first single, “Afsaana Banaaya Aapne”, is already out. It is a mid-scale, music-led film, the kind that can profit quietly in the shadow of the giants.
Eetha (4 December). Laxman Utekar (Mimi, Chhaava) directs this biopic of Vithabai Narayangaonkar, the Maharashtrian Tamasha and Lavani performer known as the “Tamasha Empress”. Shraddha Kapoor plays the title role, in her first release since Stree 2 (2024). Randeep Hooda and the recently deceased Nana Patekar are in the cast, and Maddock Films produces. The date moved from 28 August to avoid a clash with Yash’s Toxic. It is the season’s cultural-prestige entry, and word of mouth will decide its fate.
King (24 December). Shah Rukh Khan’s return to the screen is the Bollywood tentpole of the season. It is his first release since Dunki (2023) and his second film with Pathan director Siddharth Anand. Reports put the budget near ₹350 crore. The cast includes Deepika Padukone, Suhana Khan and Abhishek Bachchan, and Red Chillies Entertainment co-produces. The makers are keeping the plot tightly guarded. Its position is the strongest on the calendar. It opens a week after the Hollywood giants, with no major Hindi film scheduled against it through the Christmas–New Year window.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (20 November). Francis Lawrence returns to direct this prequel, which opens on the morning of the 50th Games, the Second Quarter Quell, when Panem doubles its tributes. Joseph Zada plays a young Haymitch Abernathy, with Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Glenn Close, Jesse Plemons and McKenna Grace. It is a big-budget dystopian thriller with IMAX plans, and it opens two weeks after Ramayana.
Hexed (25 November). Disney’s Thanksgiving original follows a teenage boy and his mother, who discover that his “weirdness” is hidden magic that opens a world where magic runs free. Hailee Steinfeld, Rashida Jones and Jodie Foster lead the voice cast. Jason Hand and Fawn Veerasunthorn direct, and Kris Bowers is reported as composer. Disney Animation has dominated this slot for years, so the family audience is its to lose.
Jumanji 3 (11 December). Sony’s comedy-adventure is officially the third in the modern series and the fourth overall. The franchise’s core cast of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan is expected back. It is the cheapest laugh on the calendar, a week ahead of the main event.
Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three (18 December). The release calendar puts both films on the same day, and neither studio has moved.
Joe and Anthony Russo direct Doomsday. Robert Downey Jr. returns to Marvel as Doctor Doom, facing a coalition of Avengers, Wakandans, the Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts and X-Men. The story continues in Secret Wars in December 2027, and Marvel is expecting one of the year’s largest IMAX rollouts.
Denis Villeneuve closes his Frank Herbert adaptation with Dune: Part Three, based on Dune Messiah. Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides now rules a galaxy at holy war. Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson and Robert Pattinson are in the cast. International release begins on 16 December. Warner Bros. holds the exclusive IMAX deal for the film, which gives it a premium-screen advantage even against the bigger franchise.
The season’s real fight is for screens, not audiences. Ramayana owns the Diwali window and the family crowd, and its two-part structure means a stumble costs the franchise a year. November belongs to The Hunger Games and Hexed abroad, while Hindi cinema’s mid-sized films work around the giants. On 18 December Disney and Warner split the world’s premium screens, and neither can win without damaging the other. Christmas week then hands the field to Shah Rukh Khan.
India’s two biggest bets, Ramayana and King, are each timed to avoid direct competition. Hollywood’s two are timed to collide. The studios that chose confrontation are betting that scale alone will fill theatres. The ones that avoided it are betting that a clear run is worth more than a bigger budget. (IPA Service)
