This is my favorite kind of post, the “Ha!  I am a GENIUS who is always right!” kind of post.  A couple of days ago when the COEAI group announced they might be considering a ban, I put together the little scraps of information and deduced a variety of things.  And they are all true!  Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!

Times of India, for once, did some actual reporting and called up some Delhi based multiplex owners to ask them about the potential ban. And they supported all my interpretations of the original story!

1. I said that this group sounds like it might be primarily single-screen owners in Maharashtra and the surrounding regions.  The president of the COEAI told ToI:

“The COEAI is a body of single-screen owners in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat.”

2. I said the main concern would be that a big Diwale release is the kind of profit you count on to keep you going for months, not showing Ae Dil would be a huge loss.  Tinku Singh, a multiplex owner, said:

“Cinemas earn a bomb during this festival, and it’s not the Diwali day, but the Diwali week, that rewrites box office history. The festive releases are the ones that tickets are sold out for days in advance. Agar hum yeh film nahin dikhayenge toh kya dikhayenge?”

3. I said the other concern is that the theaters are on the frontlines if there is a protest, they are the ones who will suffer and have to pay for physical damages.  The COEAI head said:

“The agreements have been signed, so if we don’t release the film, the distributors will claim losses from the exhibitors. But if we release the film and local parties vandalise theatres, who should be held responsible for that? It’s a really tricky situation for us and we have to find a solution.”

So basically, I am a genius and you should trust everything I say.

Oh, and also, any potential ban looks like it would be regional and single-screen only.  The multiplex people in Delhi were firm that they will be releasing it, unless there is an official government ban issued.  This is still a loss for the box office, it was this kind of partial regional ban that affected My Name is Khan and Dilwale.  But at least it isn’t the worse case scenario, of the film just being stuck in Karan’s attic, never to see the light of day.