Exclusive: Morning shows of Border 2 could be affected due to late content delivery from labs, creating confusion just hours before release.

We were the first to inform you about the content delivery issue for Border 2 through our X handle, and now the situation on the ground has become even more tense as the film is just hours away from release.

Sunny Deol starrer Border 2 is scheduled to hit cinemas on Tommorow, January 23. However, distributors and exhibitors across India are facing last-minute uncertainty as the final theatrical content has still not reached cinema servers. With less than 8-9 hours left before the first shows, early morning screenings are now under serious threat.

According to our sources, digital cinema service providers like Qube, UFO Moviez, TSR and Scrabble have already alerted territorial distributors and theatre owners about a possible delay in the content download process. Because of this, a large number of cinemas have decided to keep their morning shows on hold till 10.30 am as a precautionary step.

A our insider confirmed that the final content is expected to be made available around midnight or around 4-5 am. Even after that, the process is far from instant. Border 2 has a long runtime of approximately 3 hours and 19 minutes, which makes the downloading process more time-consuming. Once the content becomes live, it can take anywhere between three to four hours per cinema to fully download, depending on internet speed and system readiness.

Service Provider like UFO Moviez, Qube etc has also officially communicated the delay to exhibitors through a WhatsApp message and mail stating that the download would tentatively begin at 6.30 am on the release day. This has further increased concern among exhibitors who had scheduled early morning shows, as completing the download and testing the content before the first show becomes extremely challenging.

However, the situation may not be the same everywhere. In cinemas where service providers like Qube or UFO deliver content directly through servers, there is still a possibility that morning shows may run smoothly. The bigger issue lies with theatres that receive content through hard disks. In such cases, the content first needs to be downloaded into the projector system, which again depends heavily on internet bandwidth and technical infrastructure. For these cinemas, delays of three to four hours are almost unavoidable.

The main reason behind the delay is understood to be at the Mumbai lab level. Typically, the content is first cloned and prepared on hard disks before being handed over to service providers like UFO, Qube or TSR. As per inside information, the production house have not yet supplied the final cloned content to the service providers, which has pushed the entire chain behind schedule.

As of now, there has been no official clarification from the makers or distributors regarding cancellation of shows. This last-minute uncertainty has put exhibitors in a difficult position, especially for a film carrying such massive expectations.

Border 2 features an ensemble cast including Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa and Ahan Shetty, and is directed by Anurag Singh. The film has strong buzz and solid advance interest, but the content delivery delay may impact its opening-day morning business in several territories.

We as a trade is now closely watching how quickly the issue is resolved and whether theatres can stabilize operations by late morning or afternoon shows.