NEW DELHI: Bollywood be warned. With season three of the Indian Premier League all set to make its debut in theatres and around 1,000 screens across the country to telecast the Twenty20 event live in March, B Town is not planning any big releases during that time period.

That is why two big releases from Reliance Big Pictures - Hrithik Roshan's Kites and Mani Ratnam's Ravan have been slotted after the tournament. The problem is that once the IPL winds down, the T20 World Cup begins from 30 April in the West Indies. This compounds the problem of film producers. Kites will release only on 21 May, while Prakash Jha's much awaited Rajneeti with an ensemble cast releases on 4 June. This is followed by Ravan on 18 June, while Sajid Nadiadwala's Housefull, starring Akshay Kumar, is shooting for end April which means it will overlap with the T20 World Cup.

B Town is doing this in deference to the power of T 20 cricket, very much an evening spectacle. However, Farhan Akhtar's Karthik calling Karthik will release on 26 February. In fact, Amitabh Bachchan-Ben Kingsley starrer Teen Patti also opens on the same day. This is followed by Athithi Tum Kab Jaoge with Aay Devgan and Paresh Rawal on 5 March just before the onset of IPL. The same day Ekta Kapoor's Love, Sex or Dokha will also open followed by Tips's Prince on 26 March, and then Shyam Benegal's Well Done Abba. Two long-delayed Shahid Kapoor starrers Milenge Milenge on 2 April and Pathshala on 9 April also come during the tournament. 

Other big releases are only after the two tournaments to tie in with the summer holiday rush. June end will see Vipul Shah's Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya starrer Action Replay while July will see the unveiling of Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra Anjana Anjani. 

UFO Moviez, a digital satellite cinema network, has entered into a strategic alliance with multiplex chains like Cinemax, INOX, Fame and many single screen theatres across the country for showing the Twenty20 matches. In collaboration with Crown Infotainment, promoted by the Valuable Group (media leader and strategist Vijay Jindal holds a minority stake in the group), which holds the distribution rights for introducing IPL III matches to theatres. UFO till date has signed over 550 screens, out of which 200-odd are multiplexes. 

"IPL is one of the most popular events in the world but only few people can be a part of it as it is hosted in only nine cities in India. So our aim is to take it to a wide range of audience, giving them a stadium-like experience," UFO Moviez India joint managing director Kapil Aggarwal said. To provide the audience a carnival like experience, each of these theatres will have gifts, multi-cuisine food stalls, and cricket-related merchandise, among other things. 

"The matches will be screened in high definition format, which will provide 33 per cent extra than what is screened on television and without any commercial breaks. During the IPL, the theatres incur loses as no movie is released at that time. So this will serve a profitable revenue generating content for the exhibitors too," Aggarwal added.