Katrina Kaif’s horror-comedy ‘Phone Bhoot’ to release in July 2022

The horror-comedy Phone Bhoot starring Katrina Kaif, Ishaan Khatter and Siddhant Chaturvedi will arrive in cinemas on 15 July 2022. It will clash with Ranveer Singh-starrer Cirkus at the box office.

As movie theatres reopen across the country, a bunch of box office clashes are on the cards, such as Allu Arjun’s Pushpa with Hollywood flick Spider-Man: No Way Home and Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chadha with period drama KGF: Chapter 2. Films greenlit and shot post the first and second covid waves are lining up for showcasing in the coming months.

The line-up for 2022 includes big star vehicles such as Akshay Kumar’s Prithviraj and Bachchan Pandey, Tiger Shroff’s action film Heropanti 2, Ajay Devgn’s directorial Mayday, Prabhas’ mythological film Adipurush, Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt’s long-delayed Brahmastra, Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal with Kabir Singh director Sandeep Reddy, the third instalment of Salman Khan’s Tiger franchise, among others.

However, many trade experts point out that the shutdown of over 1,000 screens during the covid-19 pandemic and many theatres uncertain on when they might be able to restart all their properties, could result in inadequate showcasing even for big films. A big opening weekend becomes even more important for producers after the pandemic because they know the film will premiere on an OTT platform within days which will eat into theatrical business.

Kaif, who started her career with the Telugu film Malliswari (2004), earned commercial success in Bollywood with romantic comedies Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya (2005) and Namastey London (2007). Her highest-grossing films include action thrillers Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Dhoom 3 (2013), and Bang Bang! (2014). She last appeared in Rohit Shetty's action film Sooryavanshi alongside Akshay Kumar and is also slated to be seen in Farhan Akhtar's Jee Le Zaraa, along with Priyanka Chopra and Alia Bhatt.