When the first edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) kick-started in 2008, not many were aware of the mammoth size that it would eventually take up in years to come.
During the first couple of years itself, the tournament ended up gaining immense popularity, so much so that it began to threaten Bollywood.
The industry, which thrived most at the onset of the holiday season during April-May, given the fact that school and college examinations are over by then, started feeling threatened due to IPL.
After all, here was this entertainment that was available pretty much free of cost right there in the living room in the prime slot of evening and night.
The pinch was felt by Bollywood as a number of films were actually impacted due to lesser footfalls in theatres. Call it the craze for cricket or the fact that the films that flopped actually deserved to fail due to poor content, but the industry believes in such trends and there were scary moments indeed.
Soon, filmmakers started shying away from bringing their films during this time period. Theatres started to have a barren look and the collections faced an all-time low.
For long, there has been a superstition that films released during the IPL season won't do well, and as a result, there has been scampering of releases during the remaining 10 months, beyond the IPL season.
Thankfully, this is not going to be the case this year, since at least half a dozen biggies are set to arrive during IPL (March 23 - May 19).
These are Kalank, Romeo Akbar Walter, Student of the Year 2, De De Pyaar De and Arjun Patiala.
Kalank is a multi-starrer led by Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. Karan Johar and Sajid Nadiadwala have collaborated again with director Abhishek Varman after 2 States and have huge plans for the period drama.
Bringing their collective expertise and experience into play and tying up with giant Fox Star Studios, the duo has already started the campaign for the biggie that has Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit coming together after a hiatus and Sonakshi Sinha along with Aditya Roy Kapur having a major role to play as well.
In fact, the first major film to arrive right at the start of IPL is John Abraham's spy drama Romeo Akbar Walter. The film releases on April 5 and has all the trappings of a commercial entertainer that should find a good audience.
Director Robbie Grewal has set the film in 1971 and with Viacom supporting the film in its promotion, marketing and release, this one with Jackie Shroff and Mouni Roy in key roles is much awaited by those who love espionage thrillers.
As for those who like their dose of comedy, there is Dinesh Vijan's Arjun Patiala that has Punjabi superstar Diljit Dosanjh returning after Soorma and finding the company of Luka Chuppi girl Kriti Sanon.
Directed by Rohit Jugraj who has tasted success with few Punjabi films, the promotional campaign for Arjun Patiala will begin soon.
Expect a major campaign to start soon enough for Student Of The Year 2, which has Karan Johar handing over the reins of direction to Punit Malhotra.
Tiger Shroff would be back on the big screen after Blockbuster Baaghi 2 and the second installment of the youth franchise is much awaited. Tara Sutaria and Ananya Pandey will debut in the film.
Meanwhile, Ajay Devgn, riding high on the super success of Total Dhamaal, would be seen in an uber cool avatar as he juggles between Tabu and Rakul Preet Singh across countries from Manali to London for Akiv Ali's De De Pyaar De.
The film is arriving on May 17, which is bang over the weekend when IPL has its season finale (on May 19). Now that's indeed being brave and courageous, which demonstrates the kind of confidence that the makers have in their film.
This isn't all, as Hollywood is going to make its presence felt as well, with Avengers: Endgame, arriving on April 26. Of course, this one wouldn't have considered changing its arrival since there is IPL running in India!
That said, there are half a dozen more relatively smaller releases that are planning for a respectable release as well during the IPL, which pretty much sums it up for all.
Of course, at the end of the day, it is the audience which is the winner as there is entertainment available in both formats - Bollywood as well as cricket.
In the times when more is merrier, one looks forward to great moolah been accumulated at the Box Office right through the IPL duration.
Major film releases during IPL (March 23 - May 19)
April 5 - Romeo Akbar Walter
April 17 - Kalank
April 26 - Avengers: Endgame (English)
May 3 - Arjun Patiala
May 10 - Student Of The Year 2
May 17 - De De Pyaar De
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