Kaabil has managed to be controversy free, except for one, its release date which clashes with Shah Rukh Khan‘s Raees. The two biggies will now see a clash as neither party is ready to shift the release date. Producer of the film ‘Kaabil’, Rakesh Roshan has finally revealed the reason why he didn’t change the release date of his film.
Papa Roshan said,
“I am neither angry nor hurt with Shah Rukh Khan, Ritesh Sidhwani or Farhan Akhtar. To quote a line from ‘The Godfather’, ‘It is strictly business, not personal.’ What is baffling is that SRK, Farhan and Ritesh came to meet me twice to discuss the release date and I explained to them that the box office window open to us collectively is approximately Rs 300 crore. They agreed, then went and announced that they are coming on the Republic Day Weekend of 2017.”
He added,
“Once SRK suggested to me that I should shift my date. I told him I couldn’t because I am superstitious. During ‘King Uncle’, I had pushed the release earlier by four weeks because of my daughter Sunaina’s wedding and the film flopped. After that I have never shifted the original date.
Even during ‘Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai’ in January 2000, Aamir Khan’s ‘Mela’ opened a week before our film and Shah Rukh’s ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’ released a week later while Anil Kapoor’s ‘Pukar’ was scheduled for two weeks later. Many of my distributors advised me not to come out on January 14 with Aamir on one side and Shah Rukh on the other. But I refused to change the date even though three distributors opted out two weeks prior to the release. They told me I was committing hara-kiri. I released the film myself in these territories and even mortgaged my house. God was kind, the film was successful! I explained this to SRK and pointed out to him that if I didn’t shift the release then when my son was still a debutant and there was so much at stake, I wouldn’t now. I told them to move ‘Raees’ two weeks ahead or release it two weeks before. They hadn’t even announced their date at that point. But now that they have decided to come on the same date as us, it is fine. Both the films together will do a business of Rs 300 crore. What is my destiny will not change! Incidentally, Shah Rukh and I have a long relationship. He gave his first shot for a song in ‘King Uncle’ in Nairobi. We later worked together as filmmaker and actor in ‘Karan Arjun’ and ‘Koyla’. And years later, his company did the VFX for ‘Krrish’.”
Now we know the reason why Rakesh Roshan did not change the release date of his film.
Well, we hope both movies meet with great success!
