MUMBAI: This year‘s Diwali has an air of excitement all around with two big-banner, big star-cast releases in the Rohit Shetty directed Golmaal 3 and Vipul Amrutlal Shah‘s Action Replayy.

While Golmaal 3 has Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi and Tushaar Kapoor, Action Replayy has Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai displaying their acting prowess.

For cinema theatres that tend to focus on cashing on the maximum during the opening weekend of a film‘s release, big-banner releases mean reaping in good business.

Avers Fun Multiplex senior vice president Deepak Taluja, "After Dabangg and Robot, there is an air of expectation all around. People are excited of the two big releases and are in a gung ho spirit."

Although the amount of money at stake this year is half the production cost of the three films released last Diwali, the exhibition industry is hoping for a better show. As many as ten big films are due to hit the screens in the coming weeks with hopes pinned on the Diwali releases. Industry watchers say that as much as Rs 1 billion is riding on the two big releases.

Says Cinemax CEO Sunil Punjabi, " After a long time, this Diwali is set to be phenomenal. For most of our big properties like that of Versova, we have kept as many as 28 shows per film per day starting from 6.45 am. On the contrary, for our smaller properties like Sion we have lesser shows while for our single-screens we have planned as many as six shows per day divided between the two films."

Among the three releases last year, Blue and Main Aurr Mrs Khanna fared dismally at the box-office. All the Best, another big-budget film, managed to bring in the audience.

This year has been a lacklustre year as far as films are concerned with a few big-banner films like My Name is Khan, Dabangg and Robot doing stupendous business at the box-office while a small-budget film Tere Bin Laden did considerable good business. Other films like Ishqiya and Raajneeti turned out to be average fare while the others fell by the way side.

Says trade analyst Amod Mehra, "The year has not been so good. The success ratio has been very low. The worst period for the industry was in May and June when two films, Kites and Raavan, bombed badly at the box office. Dabaang and Robot has provided us a ray of hope. Things are looking very promising this festive season."

Following the Diwali weekend releases, November will see the release of the Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer Guzarish besides Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1 in 3D. December will see Farah Khan‘s Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif starrer Tees Maar Khan.