Dunki vs Salaar Box Office: This upcoming Christmas will witness the biggest box office clash between Indian cinema's two superstars, as Shah Rukh Khan's Dunki and Prabhas Salaar will have an intense face-off at the theaters.

Dunki is releasing on Thursday, December 21, globally, a day before Salaar, which is scheduled to hit screens on December 22. As per the latest development, both films are reportedly engaged in a behind-the-scenes battle to secure the best screen count and shows.

In the meantime, distributors of Shah Rukh Khan's film "Dunki" have refused to share screens with Salaar.

Dunki distributors deny screens to Salaar

As the fight to show box office dominance heightens, a new report by Indian Express stated that Rajkumar Hirani's directorial Dunki distributors have made it crystal clear that they won't be sharing any screen with Prabhas's action drama, Salaar.

Pen Marudhar is distributing Dunki, while Salaar is being distributed by Anil Thadani's AA Films in North India. A clause issued by Dunki distributors bluntly states that they should be given all four shows, and if not, "then we will also see what to do in future with other films."

Further, the outlet quoted a source saying, "Dunki team's point of view is that they were the first to announce, so they deserve priority, and on top of that, Shah Rukh is coming with two Rs 500 cr films. They will of course go all out to give it the best possible showcasing."

An insider informed the outlet that AA Films is ready to share shows given that Salaar is for the masses and they require single screens. Adding that Salaar distributors are fine with two shows each out of four, the insider said, "The offer is, one prime time show (6.30 PM and 9.30 PM) will go to Salaar, one to Dunki, the rest two (12.30 PM and 3.30 PM) can be decided by the exhibitors."

Therefore, single screen owners have only opened bookings for Thursday as exhibitors are yet to take a decision. Notably, senior distributor and exhibitor Raj Bansal pointed out that Shah Rukh's Dunki will have an advantage in the northern belt while Prabhas popularity is more in the south; thus, Salaar will lead.

He also added that both are big and will have a good supply chain. "Single screens would normally opt for Salaar, but in certain cases they will go with Dunki because of their relations with the distributors. It is a tough battle for single-screen and stand-alone cinemas," he said.

While explaining the issue, Bhansal stated that if Dunki gets to all cinemas as it is releasing on Thursday, he said, "When a new film will arrive on Friday, of course there will be a drop and that happens always. The issue is being resolved as we speak. Usually if a multiplex has three screens, it will divide one screen out of the two for each film, open the advance at least and say let's keep talking about the showcasing."

This scenario is seen with every clash, but the film that is liked more eventually gets more screen count and emerges as the box office winner.

Trade sources indicate that the tentative showcasing in multiplexes for the upcoming releases would be 50 percent for "Dunki," 35 percent for "Salaar," and 15 percent for "Aquaman," "Animal," and "Sam Bahadur." Meanwhile, at all-India level, Dunki will have an upper hand.

Dunki is not releasing in dubbed languages, while Salaar has a pan-Indian opening in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam.

"In South it is a different ball game. Some places screen Hindi films, some are exclusively only for Tamil and Telugu. The latter will obviously screen only Salaar, but the former will see Dunki get good showcasing along with Salaar," the outlet stated.

Dunki is Rajkumar Hirani's biggest opener with Rs 40 cr after Sanju, and Salaar Hindi version is aiming to open in the range of Rs 17-18 cr.