‘Kaabil’ vs ‘Raees’ row rages

Rakesh Roshan is miffed with Shahrukh Khan. It appears that the big box-office clash between ‘Kaabil’ and ‘Raees’ is inevitable.

Hrithik Roshan’s ‘Kaabil’ and Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Raees’ were slated to lock horns in theatres on January 26. But the makers of ‘Kaabil’ tried to avert the clash by deciding to release the film a day earlier on January 25.

However, now even ‘Raees’ has shifted its release date to January 25, and it is also mentioned in the theatrical trailer. Not only this, ‘Raees’ will hit theatres from the morning itself, as against ‘Kaabil’ which will screen its first show in evening at 6 pm.

‘Kaabil’ producer Rakesh Roshan is quite upset over the sudden development and spoke about the box-office battle to DNA. He said, “I didn’t know about their date. My distributors said we should come out on January 25 from the evening shows. I didn’t know the Raees team also planned to change their date.”

He added, “This February I planned the release of Kaabil. My film was getting over in August. I had October, November and December to release the film. But when I saw all the films which were releasing on these dates, I said I will not want to clash and so I looked into January then. In January, we had a clean slate. So we announced the film in January. Now all of a sudden in the last month or so, I also learnt that they were also planning to come on the same date.

So I met SRK and explained it to him that there is a well and we both are jumping into it. Because there is a box-office limitation of not crossing 300 crore, either you will be at 170 and I at 130 or you at 150 and me at 150 but nobody will cross 300 crores. I also told him Hrithik is not your contemporary. Your contemporaries are Salman Khan and Aamir Khan who have already crossed 300 crores. So it is better that we don’t clash and you choose some other date.

He understood and then he again announced it to clash with our film. I met him again and tried to tell him but again and again when I met him, I got the impression that they were thinking that I am scared and that is why I am telling all these things. On the contrary, I was as a businessman trying to tell them that two big films should not come together.”

Rakesh Roshan explained why he can’t shift ‘Kaabil’, “I can’t shift because I have a superstition. I had shifted one film of mine – King Uncle – by four weeks because of my daughter’s wedding and it didn’t do well. After that when Kaho Na Pyaar Hai was being released, January 7 was Aamir Khan’s film Mela, 14th was my film and 21st was SRK’s Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.

All distributors told me to shift because you can’t come in between Aamir Khan and SRK. But because of my superstition, I didn’t shift. Two or three distributors also left my film. And it was my good luck that my film did really well. So once I announce the date I don’t shift. So I explained to them properly. And they are youngsters. I love them. I know SRK and his family well, Ritesh and Farhan well. So I tried to explain it to them.”
The veteran filmmaker is evidently miffed with SRK and the young makers of ‘Raees’ for not heeding to his advice. “You can guide and tell a blind person that there is a well and he will change his route. But if your eyes are open and you are seeing and still jumping in the well, I can’t do anything about it. And it is not just affecting us. As a film maker from the last 50 years in this industry, you have to see the growth of the industry. This is not affecting just us.

The clash will affect all the working crew members, the exhibitors, distributors and it will also affect the audience because they will be divided. So you are not clashing with me. You are clashing with the whole world. So how do we go then?”