By Subhash K Jha

In an unprecedented move, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Sony Pictures have decided to premiere Saawariya on the evening of November 7, two days ahead of its release on November 9.

Normally films are premiered on Thursday, 14 hours ahead of release on Friday, so that the chances of negative publicized for a film is minimized.

"But we've enough faith in our product not to be bothered by such considerations. To my mind Sanjay Bhansali is the finest filmmaker in this country," says Uday Singh, the CEO of Sony Pictures.

"With Diwali on November 9 and people being busy with preparations and pujas in their homes we didn't want to inconvenience our premiere guests.

We aren't scared of showing the film two days in advance. We've seen the product and we now know Sanjay has given us a superlative film."

Uday further explains, "In fact we were keen on hosting the premiere of Saawariya in New York, and we didn't mind doing the NY premiere almost a week before release. However the special effects delayed the completion and the NY idea had to be dropped."

Speaking on the release of Om Shanti Om simultaneously with Saawariya, Uday opines, "During the festive mood we believe the people are ready to go out and spend money on two movies. And it doesn't matter to us which film they see first as long as we dynamite them out of their homes.

Having said that, let me rustle the concerned people's brains and remind them we announced our release date in the trade a year back. If suddenly competition creeps up on us, so be it. They're two completely different films.

And the market is large enough for both. Shah Rukh Khan is undoubtedly the king, whereas Sanjay Bhansali a unique creator. Maybe it's time for audiences to dig deep into their wallets during this festive season."

Sony is releasing about 600 prints of Saawariya in India and about 900 more globally.

Says Uday Singh, "We're primarily targeting the film at NRI audiences abroad, plus a limited arthouse release for non-Indians. If that works we'll pump up the release. But no chances of dubbing Saawariya.

Today's audiences are far more tolerant of subtitles, what with their eyes constantly multi-tasking on the tv screen"