Bollywood banking on Diwali with Shahrukh's Ra.One

It's conventional wisdom in Bollywood to release movies during Diwali in a bid to set the Box Office register ringing and this Diwali too is no exception. Shahrukh Khan's Ra.One, Hema Malini's Tell Me O Khuda, Himesh Reshammiya's Damadamm. But setting the tone is SRK's most ambitious project, which is releasing tomorrow.

Trade analysts feel that Ra.One with its innovative and aggressive marketing coupled with planned promotional drive will take the shine off the two other films. "People not only in India but also abroad are looking forward to Ra.One. The other two films - Tell Me O Kkhuda and Damadamm will be affected due to Ra.One," trade analyst Taran Adarsh told PTI.

Diwali is a big gamble for the tinsel town managers. Last year, 'Golmaal 3' and 'Action Replayy', directed by Rohit Shetty and Vipul Shah, respectively vied for the box office pie. While the former managed to cut across the audiences 'Action Replayy' failed to make much impact even after having formidable star cast like Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan and Akshay Kumar.

In the 1990's too movies released during the festival of lights had boosted the prospects of many films, prominent among them being Yash Chopra's 'Veer Zaara', 'Mohabatien' (2000), 'Dil Toh Pagal Hai' (1997), 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' (1995), Karan Johar's 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' (1998), Sooraj Barjatiya's 'Hum Saath Saath Hain' (1999) among others. Trade pundits are almost unanimous in their prediction that 'Ra.One' with the kind of hype it has generated besides unique genre will steal the show.