Delayed Bengali film Dhumketu gives tough fight to War 2 in West Bengal; sells a whopping 18,000 tickets

The movie industry is preparing for a big competition between the films "War 2" starring Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR, and "Coolie" featuring Rajinikanth. During such competitions, there are often problems with how many shows each film gets. However, in the state of West Bengal, a delayed Bengali film called "Dhumketu" is making a strong challenge to both "War 2" and "Coolie."

EXCLUSIVE: The delayed Bengali film "Dhumketu" is giving a tough fight to "War 2" in West Bengal; it has sold over 18,000 tickets.

A trade source told , “Dhumketu comes out on the same day as War 2 and Coolie, which is Thursday, August 14.

 It was known that a lot of people were excited to watch this film. Still, the makers are surprised by the number of tickets sold in advance. Many shows across the state, especially in Kolkata, are already filling up or almost sold out.”

The trade source added, “Dhumketu has sold nearly 18,000 tickets by Monday, August 11, 9:00 am, and the number is still growing every hour.

 Meanwhile, War 2 has sold around 5,000 tickets in West Bengal.”

War 2 is made and distributed by Yash Raj Films (YRF), and they have asked cinemas in Hindi-speaking regions to show the film in all screens or nearly all screens.

The trade source continued, “But YRF made an exception in West Bengal, considering the strong response to Dhumketu’s early ticket sales.

 YRF head Aditya Chopra always takes a realistic approach and understands the excitement around both the Bengali film and War 2. So the exception was made.”

In single-screen theatres in Kolkata like Prachi, Asoka, and Menoka, War 2 has 3 shows, while Dhumketu has only 1 show.

 In Jayanti and Binodini, Dhumketu has 2 shows. In Navina and Uma Talkies, both Dhumketu and the Hindi version of Coolie have 2 shows each. At the famous Priya cinema, starting August 14, they will show 3 shows of War 2, 1 show of Dhumketu, and the morning show will be the animated film Mahavatar Narsimha. Surprisingly, both Dhumketu shows at Navina and the afternoon show at Binodini are already sold out, even though the film is releasing only three days from now.

Dhumketu stars popular Bengali actor Dev along with Subhashree Ganguly, Parambrata Chatterjee, Chiranjeet Chakraborty, and others.

 Readers might be surprised to know that the film's shooting started almost ten years ago in October 2015 and ended in January 2017. After facing some problems, the film was finally released earlier this year.

A person inside the Bengali film industry commented, “Usually, when films are delayed, they look old and lose their appeal over time.

 But with Dhumketu, that hasn’t happened at all. The audience knows the film was made 9-10 years ago, but they are still very excited to watch it. This is truly historic.”