Raees, Kaabil release on January 25 (courtesy: shahrukh_khan_official, hrithikroshanworld)
Highlights
- Kaabil will open on the morning of January 25
- Negotiations between Team Raees and Team Kaabil had failed
- "Whatever dates we are taking, they are following," said Rakesh Roshan
Brace yourself for January 25, folks, the
Shah Rukh Khan vs Hrithik Roshan box office clash is going to be a super-sized showdown. It has just been revealed that Hrithik's film
Kaabil will open on the morning and not the evening of January 25 as it was previously meant to.
Kaabil appears to have thrown its gauntlet into the ring and has deliberately rescheduled itself by some hours to go up against
Shah Rukh Khan's Raees. Those who already know the backstory to this will be getting the popcorn ready, those who don't should read on for edification. The change in
Kaabil's release time was tweeted by trade analyst Taran Adarsh:
The mega box office clash on this Republic Day weekend has been contentious ever since SRK's film rebooked its dates from last July. Its original release date meant that
Raees would have competed with Salman Khan's
Sultan, a collision that was averted when the producers of
Raees announced that the film would instead open on January 26, 2017. The date had already been calendared for two films - Ajay Devgn's
Baadshaho and
Hrithik's Kaabil.
Baadshaho rescheduled,
Kaabil didn't.
Negotiations took place between Team Raees and Team Kaabil but failed to produce a result until it was revealed last December that Hrithik Roshan's movie would advance itself to the evening before - 6 pm on January 25 was the film's new slot. Just days later, at the release of the
trailer of Raees, Shah Rukh Khan announced that his film would also be changing its date to January 25 and would open in the morning, hours before
Kaabil. "We had discussed this a long time ago with our exhibitors and distributors. We will be opening in the regular shows and
Kaabil will open in the evening shows. This is a logical decision because the 26th is a holiday. We had decided that we would reveal the release date only at the launch of the trailer," SRK said at the launch event.
Hrithik has diplomatically maintained that the box office is big enough for both films and that his friendship with SRK would survive the clash. His father,
Kaabil producer Rakesh Roshan, wasn't so forgiving. "Whatever dates we are taking, they are following us. I would have never done the same. I belong to an old school of filmmaking and I have given 50 years of my life to the industry. I would never release my film on a day when another filmmaker has already announced their film. I decided to remove
Krrish 4 also from Christmas 2018 because I saw SRK's film is coming that day. I could have easily released my film with
Befikre or even with
Dangal if I had to clash. But when I announced the film in February, I saw a clean window in January and hence I picked the date," he told
DNA in December.
Now, it seems that
Kaabil, co-starring Yami Gautam, is taking the fight to
Raees, which co-stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Mahira Khan.