The cricket season may be on, but that’s not stopping the real action from happening at the BO, as films continue to jostle at the box-office pitch. And after rather clean weeks of no big takkars happening between any two films on the same date recently, the industry’s now talking about the clash waiting to happen between Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn and Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr, when their films release next week on April 27. Trade insiders are already gearing up for the takkar between Ajay and Downey as their films Tezz and The Avengers respectively are hot on the distributors circuit and a tussle is already on between them when it comes to the market.

 Though the two films wouldhave been treated like two unlikely competitors, considering one is a Hollywood flick, while the other is Bollywood, what’s making it a clash to watch out for in the industry is that The Avengers will be released in three other languages including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu which is bound to affect the business of Tezz. Talking about the takkar, trade analysts point out that while Ajay has a strong draw as a star here, Robert too has a strong fan base in the metros.

“Yes normally there would be no comparison between the two, but here it is inevitable. With stars like Ajay, Anil Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut… Tezz naturally has its own viewer base and a broader appeal especially in the North. It felt like that the delay in release did affect it initially, but of late the film has picked up tremendously in the market,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh. “However, what’s expected to work in the favour of The Avengers (that also stars Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans) in terms of collections is that the film is expected to do rather well down South where it has an equally strong market,” he adds.

It’s a clash for sure, agrees a leading distributor. “The studio is confident of the market here, so they are releasing Avengers in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu in over 800 theatres in both 3D and 2D. Also in a rare move, they are actually releasing the film here before the US. The film is hot in the market, as distributors are calling it a rather safe bet considering all the superheroes are hit franchisees in their own right,” he says. As for Tezz, the senior distributor adds that the leading stars are it’s biggest strength. “It’s a fast-paced action thriller, a genre that Ajay and Anil are both comfortable in. Also Ajay is a strong name to reckon with, so it’ll be interesting to see the desi hero take on the superhero Iron Man for sure,” adds the distributor.