They (Raees makers) are following us. I would have never done this: Rakesh Roshan

Mumbai: After releasing the trailer of ‘Raees’, SRK dropped another bomb when he announced that his film will release on January 25, same days as Hrithik Roshan-Yami Gautam starrer ‘Kaabil’.

The makers of ‘Raees’ have been postponing its release date to avoid clashes with big banner movies, first with Salman Khan’s ‘Sultan’ and then with Karan Johar’s ‘Ae Dil Hain Mushkil’. Later, they finally confirmed Republic Day- January 26, as their official release date, like ‘Kaabil’.

Things turned sour when the makers of the crime drama, Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment and Ritesh Sidhwani-Farhan Akhtar led Excel Entertainment, allegedly followed in the footsteps of the makers of the revenge drama by shifting their release date from January 26 to January 25.

While SRK defended this move calling it ‘logical’, Rakesh Roshan, producer of ‘Kaabil’, feels that ‘they are following them’.

"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," Mr Roshan told DNA.

Although both the movies are inevitably up for a nasty clash, ‘Kaabil’ has opted for an evening 6 o’clock release whereas ‘Raees’ has booked normal show timings.

At the trailer launch event, SRK said, “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."

On the work front, Hrithik’s last flick ‘Mohenja Daro’ bombed at the box office and SRK’s recently-released ‘Dear Zindagi’ is doing fairly well.