Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali have averted the first big clash of 2018, but with nearly 30 big- and medium-budget films releasing this year, trade pundits say not all clashes can be averted.

Akshay’s Padman will now release on February 9 and not clash with Padmaavat . But that means Padman will clash with Sidharth Malbotra’s Aiyaary — which had earlier postposned its January 25 release date. Last heard, Aiyaary was likely to go back to its original release date. 

Producer Jayantilal Gada said: “We were the first one to move Aiyaary for Bhansali, I am happy that Akshay has moved his film too. I would advise producers if there is an option, avoid a clash.’’

Prerna Arora and her KriArj Entertainment — also one of the Padman producers — will have two of its releases clashing on Holi: the Anushka Sharma-starrer Pari and John Abraham’s Parmanu. Prerna had moved Pari from February 9 to March 2 to give Padman a free run on its original release date.  But Parmanu could shift from February 23 to March 2. 
 

Prerna is also looking for an alternate date for Sara Ali Khan’s debut venture Kedarnath. She said: “The nature of this industry is such that everything is unpredictable. I will do my best to get a good release week for my films.”

Salman Khan’s Race 3 and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Fanney Khan are set to release on Id.

Next is the clash of biopics on June 29 — Sanjay Dutt’s biopic against Soorma (based on hockey legend Sandeep Singh) starring Diljit Dosanjh and directed by Shaad Ali. Last heard, the makers of Soorma are planning to reschedule their release date.

Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, the debut film of Sunny Deol’s son Karan Deol, will clash with the Deepika Padukone-Irrfan Khan untitled film by Vishal Bhardwaj on October 2. 

Namaste England and Total Dhamaal will clash on December 7, and Kedarnath with SRK’s Zero in the pre-Christmas week. While Kedarnath director Abhishek Kapoor is adamant on the clash, producer Prerna is looking for an alternate date. 
 

“Never before have we witnessed musical chairs in release dates of big film releases. This is all happening due to Padmaavat. When a huge film like this arrives no other film would choose to oppose it,” said trade analyst Atul Mohan. “Padmaavat was originally slated to arrive on December 1, 2017 and had three open weeks but then we saw what happened. The makers had no other choice but to come as early as they could and the Republic Day weekend was the best Friday they could think of. Now as I said a Friday can be utilised best by one big film so Padman made way for Padmaavat and decided to postpone itself by two weeks.”