Republic Day in 2018 is turning out to be a regular hot potato for Bollywood. The date was originally slated for S. Shankar’s sci-fi thriller 2.0 starring Rajnikanth and Akshay Kumar. But no sooner did the Chennai-based entertainment company Lyca Productions decide to push 2.0 to April to accommodate pending special effects work, than Akshay seized the vacant date to announce the release of his home production Padman.
Everything was fine until Saturday. When Neeraj Pandey, without any fanfare, released online a 33-seconds BTS (behind the scene) video of his crime drama Aiyaary starring Siddharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee that he declared would release on January 26, 2018. The video and release date came as a big surprise to trade circles in Bollywood. Akshay, who is in New York shooting the climax of Padman, was unavailable for comment.
https://twitter.com/neerajpofficial/status/931839809085165568
But sources say Neeraj’s decision to release Aiyaary on Republic Day must have come as a shock to Akshay, too. The actor and director have collaborated on films like Special 26 (2013), Baby (2015), Rustom (2016) and Naam Shabana (2017) and are reportedly good friends. But their films coming together on Republic Day in 2018 will result in a clash at the box office that is unnecessary at the time like this. So what promoted Neeraj to do this?
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Gossip is that Akshay and Neeraj have not been able to come to an understanding on the film Crack that they announced in 2016 and whose poster the actor tweeted. It was reportedly to release on Independence Day this year. But with Crack not going on the floors, Akshay used the Independence Day holiday to release his Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. And Neeraj went to work on Aiyaary. But have relations between the two spoiled and they are now competing for the same date?
Akshay has said in the past that there are only 52 weeks in a year and 180 films to accommodate, so there was bound to be Friday clashes at the box office, especially with big producers looking to release their films on holidays. Apropos Crack being on and off, Akshay tweeted in January that the film will happen, adding, “Don’t believe everything you hear in the media, filmmaking is an art, and it sometimes takes longer than expected.”
Meanwhile, sources say that Neeraj had planned to release Aiyaary on Republic Day even when the date was known to be reserved for 2.0. He didn’t mind locking horns with the Rajnikanth-Akshay starrer. Neeraj didn’t believe 2.0 would have an impact on Aiyaary. “Ours is a small film that belongs to a totally different genre, which is the reason why I don’t see any problem,” Neeraj had said then. He was categorical “this is not a clash against Akshay”. So what does he now have to say about Aiyaary clashing with Padman? And, most importantly, did he inform Akshay that he was also coming on Republic Day?
