By Joginder Tuteja, March 24, 2010 – 12:54 IST

The challenge Bollywood is all set to hit back. And how! A couple of years back when Season One of Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket competition kick started, not many were prepared for its might. In fact the only film which succeeded in a major way despite the onslaught of the cricket matches was Emraan Hashmi starrer Jannat. Yes, the film was well made but its success was also primarily due to the fact that this film from the house of Bhatts dealt with match fixing and betting, something which was quite contemporary at its best.

However, Bollywood pretty much realised that with matches beginning from 4 PM in the evening and wrapping up around 11 PM in the night, it was futile to bring any new releases in theatres while the tournament was on. This is the reason why in 2009 there were no biggies announced in the duration was IPL was scheduled. It was a different matter that this time period also saw the stand off between producers and multiplexes which led to a total draught of movies in theatres. However, it was quite clear that even without the strike, no filmmaker with crores riding on his project would have dared to bring it up in theatres.

Comments an insider, “Yes there was this waiting period but then it only led to double trouble. First and foremost there was no software made available to theatres which means that Bollywood wheels stopped moving for a couple of months, hence bringing the More >