Recently we saw the ultimate clash of the trailers seen in recent years glimpses of two films were shown to viewers last week on one hand ‘Saawariya’ made people watch the screen in disbelief for its huge canvas where as Om Shanti Om showed shirtless Khan for the first time and had all his female fan’s going week in knees.

So will it be SRK's retro lover boy look in Om Shanti Om or will it be Bhansali's venture to launch two of the most eagerly awaited new comers this year, which one will rake in the moolah at the box office? And which will attract critical acclaim? It will be all there to see, in a few months from now. Lets find out what the movie experts say about the biggest clash ever at the box office.

Says a source, "While Om Shanti Om has Bollywood's biggest superstar in the winning combination from Main Hoon Na with director Farah Khan, Saawariya has the magician himself, Bhansali returning to the song and dance extravaganza of Devdas. There's also the curiosity to see Rishi Kapoor's son with Anil Kapoor's daughter in Saawariya. And if Om Shanti Om has King Khan, Bhansali has cleverly slipped Salman Khan with Rani Mukherjee in extended roles for Saawariya. So the stakes are equal between the two films."

Both the films are releasing Nov 9 and the distributors have waged an aggressive publicity campaign but the competition to market the films is tough. While 'Om Shanti Om', Farah Khan's second directorial venture, has the backing of Shah Rukh and his Red Chillies Entertainment, 'Sawaariya' has director Sanjay Leela Bhansali at the helm with Hollywood studio Sony Pictures backing him.

Reportedly, Sony Pictures, the co-producer of 'Saawariya', has allocated Rs 200 million for the film's publicity. It is not surprising because Hollywood is known for exorbitant marketing budgets for movies.

Sony had released 750 'Saawariya' trailers in India and another 800 globally last month. No Indian film has got such a widespread first look.

"With the entry of Hollywood studios moviemaking in India would become more organized and be treated as a profit and loss business. In India the spending on marketing and publicity is very limited, as low as 10 percent of the total cost. However in Hollywood it is more than 30 percent," said Sundar Raman, managing director, MindShare, a leading media planning agency.

Although the marketing budget for 'Om Shanti Om' is not known, the cost of the film is reported to be Rs 350 million while ''Sawaariya' has been made at a budget of Rs 400 million.

"For any film, publicity is a must. Usually, the budget for marketing is 10 to 15 percent of the total cost. Compared to Bollywood, Hollywood has a bigger territory. They have more than 280 territories and that is why they have a huge publicity budget because they know they have the means to recover it. Sometimes they even dub their films. But Indian films don't enjoy such reach," said Parag Desai, a Mumbai-based media consultant.

Vikramjit Roy, spokesperson of Sony Pictures, doesn't agree that Indian films don't enjoy wider reach.

Roy says: "The Indian film market is evolving. And the Indian diasporas is emerging almost everywhere in the world, and what better way to spread the flavor of India than Bollywood films. Also, cinema cuts across religion and culture."

However, the fact is that Indian cinema doesn't have global appeal. Its only patrons are NRIs. Secondly, excessive publicity doesn't guarantee success at the box office. 'Ta Ra Rum Pum', 'Jhoom Barabar Jhoom' and 'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag' are few examples of high publicity gone waste. But Sony is confident about 'Saawariya'.

"Sanjay Leela Bhansali's body of work has been in a class of its own, from his very first endeavor, 'Khamoshi', through 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' to 'Devdas', and his most recent critically acclaimed film, 'Black', his films have epitomized sensitivity and embodied visual splendor," said Roy.
But if the film flops, is there any means to recover the money spent?