Fenil’s Bollywood Talk # 915

WILL IKKIS BREAK THE FIRST FRIDAY JINX AFTER NO ONE KILLED JESSICA?

Usually, there’s no significant release on the first Friday of the year. But 2026 will be an exception. The war film, Ikkis, which was earlier scheduled to arrive in cinemas on December 25, will now be released on January 1. The makers chose to move ahead by a week due to the Dhurandhar wave. The decision made sense as they have got a much better screen count than what they would have achieved on Christmas Day.

Ikkis stars Agastya Nanda, Jaideep Ahlawat and the late Dharmendra. It is directed by Sriram Raghavan and backed by Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films. It tells the story of Arun Khetarpal, one of the youngest recipients of the Param Vir Chakra for the bravery he showed during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. The trailer has been well-received. It looks like a quality product from the assets and moreover, this is also Dharmendra’s last film. The veteran actor is no more and one can’t help but admit that this factor has also played a part in enhancing the film’s buzz.

However, though the hype has been created, it’s there only to an extent. This is because the film is meant for a multiplex audience, as indicated by the promos. It is expected to open at around Rs. 3 crores and might go upto the Rs. 4 crore mark. If it jumps well on the third day, that is, Saturday, January 3, it can have a lengthy run at the box office.

It is said that films don’t work on the first Friday of the year. The last film that worked was No One Killed Jessica; it was released way back, on January 7, 2011, and it broke the Friday jinx. It now remains to be seen if Ikkis is also able to do so and thereby create history.