Baby John producer Murad Khetani clears air on show-sharing talks with Pushpa 2: “We’re asking for reasonable 50-50 allocation in single screens

Anil Thadani, the distributor of Pushpa 2: The Rule, and PVR Inox Pictures, the distributor of Baby John, have reportedly been at odds over show-sharing since Thursday. It revealed yesterday that advance reservations for Baby John, starring Varun Dhawan, have not yet opened in a number of theaters because PVR has requested 60% of the showings for their movie and 40% of the showings for Pushpa 2-The Rule. According to reports, some exhibitors and even Pushpa 2's distributor are hesitant about this arrangement. 

On Sunday night (December 22), I had an exclusive conversation with Baby John’s producer Murad Khetani, who provided clarification on these reports. He also promised that on Monday, December 23, advance reservations for the movie would open nationwide. 

"There is no issue," said Murad Khetani at the outset. Advances have also been made by MovieMax, Miraj, Mukta, and others. There were a few minor programming-related issues that needed to be resolved. We must proceed gradually, and it requires time. We've been working on it with our distribution team. Nothing can be closed and put in its proper place.

Rumor had it that PVR Inox had begun booking Baby John and Pushpa 2 The Rule for December 25 before other chains were permitted to do so, which resulted in a

giving PVR and Inox theaters a first-mover advantage. 

Murad Khetani explained, "The other multiplexes follow the national chains' programming pattern." PVR, Inox, and Cinepolis opened first for that reason. The movie is being distributed by PVR Inox. Other chains are implementing similar showcasing in their own theaters because they wanted to see what PVR Inox is requesting. PVR Inox opened the advances first for this reason. The intention was to let other multiplexes know that Look, we're also giving Baby John a lot of shows. We would like you to do the same. They made it apparent that they are not requesting a lot of shows for Baby John while their multiplexes are not doing the same.