Hyderabad: Sriram Raghavan's upcoming film Merry Christmas, featuring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi in lead roles, has been preponed. Initially planned for a December 15, 2023 release in both Hindi and Tamil languages, the movie will now debut a week earlier, on December 8, 2023. This adjustment was made strategically to avoid a potential clash with the eagerly anticipated film Yodha, starring Sidharth Malhotra. However, the makers of Yodha too shifted film's relese to December 8. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh made the announcement regarding Merry Christmas and Yodha the release date change on October 3, 2023.
The decision to advance the release dates is seemingly to provide Merry Christmas and Yodha a more favorable release window, as there are no major Hindi films scheduled for release on December 8. However, it's important to note that the film will still face competition from two other significant releases on December 1: Animal, featuring Ranbir Kapoor, and Sam Bahadur, starring Vicky Kaushal. Nevertheless, the makers of Merry Christmas are banking on the star power of Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi to draw audiences to theaters.
Merry Christmas is backed by Ramesh Taurani, Jaya Taurani, Sanjay Routray, and Kewal Garg. A unique aspect of the film is that it has been shot in both Hindi and Tamil, with distinct supporting casts for each version. In the Hindi version, notable actors such as Sanjay Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Pratima Kannan, and Tinnu Anand play important roles.