August is a special month for Bollywood thanks to the Independence Day weekend, which sees a couple of big releases.
Joginder Tuteja lists your August entertainment in theatres.
Key Points
- Independence Day box office clash: Batwara 1947, Awarapan 2, Vishwanath and Sons will lock horns on August 14.
- Major South Indian releases Vishwanath and Sons, I’m Game, Khalifa, Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups arrive in August.
- The final week brings a mix of genres with Jeevan Bheema Yojana, Khosla Ka Ghosla 2, Eetha, ensuring August wraps up with comedy, drama, biographical storytelling.
Ohh My Dog
Release date: August 7
OMG 2 Director Amit Rai returns with an emotional tale about a young boy’s beautiful friendship with a stray dog.
Starring Pankaj Tripathi, Pawan Malhotra, Rajesh Kumar and Geeta Aggrawal Sharma, this one is for the entire family.
Batwara 1947
Release date: August 14
August’s biggest release Batwara 1947 sees Sunny Deol reunite with Rajkumar Santoshi after delivering a hattrick of biggies in the 1990s like Ghayal, Ghatak and Damini.
To top that, Aamir Khan steps in as producer. So, of course, expectations are mammoth for this one.
The film also stars Preity Zinta and Shabana Azmi. Shabana, incidentally, also stars in the Independence Day weekend’s other big release, Awarapan 2.
Awarapan 2
Release date: August 14
Nineteen years after the first film comes its sequel, Awarapan 2. Emraan Hashmi returns as the lead while Shriya Saran makes way for Disha Patani.
Nitin Kakkar (Filmistan, Jawaani Jaaneman) will take over the directorial reins from Mohit Suri.
Awarapan may have flopped in 2007 but it carries a lot of nostalgia, which the sequel will probably make good use of.
Vishwanath and Sons
Release date: August 14
Directed by Venky Atluri, the Tamil film Vishwanath and Sons stars Suriya, Mamitha Baiju, Radikaa Sarathkumar, Raveena Tandon.
An emotional family drama, the film centres around a romance between a man in his 40s with a woman half his age.
I’m Game
Release date: August 20
Dulquer Salmaan will be seen next in the Malayalam sports action thriller, I’m Game.
Directed by Nahas Hidhayath, the film is based around the world of cricket and is packed with action, drama, and adrenaline-pumping moments.
Khalifa
Release date: August 20
Starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and directed by Vysakh, Khalifa is an action thriller about a notorious gold smuggling kingpin, who inherited his multi-million dollar criminal enterprise from a lineage of gangsters.
The story follows his sprawling operation, which spans from the Middle East all the way to India.
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit
Release date: August 21
Girish AD’s Malayalam romcom Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, starring Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju, is produced by Fahadh Faasil, Dileesh Pothan and Syam Pushkaran.
This one also follows a couple with a significant age difference.
Insidious: Out Of The Further
Release date: August 21
Hollywood’s popular horror franchise Insidious has a new installment,Insidious: Out Of The Further.
Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups
Release date: August 26
Originally supposed to arrive in March, Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups has been pushed to an August release.
Yash spearheads the film in a double role as father and son, and the film stars Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Tara Sutaria, Huma Qureshi and Rukmini Vasanth. It is directed by Geethu Mohandas.
Jeevan Bheema Yojana
Release date: August 28
Arshad Warsi stars in his first ever double role in the comedy Jeevan Bheema Yojana.
He paires up with Sanjeeda Sheikh once again after Dhamaal.
Directed by Abhishek Dogra, the film co-stars Vijay Raaz and Pooja Chopra.
Khosla Ka Ghosla 2
Release date: August 28
The much-awaited comedy-drama Khosla Ka Ghosla 2 arrives on Raksha Bandhan.
Directed by Prashant Bhagia, it brings back the original cast of Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Praveen Dabbas, Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
