srk's CE dilemma!

The competition to clinch the festival release dates is hotting up in Bollywood, so much so that Shahrukh Khan, who has the Diwali slot to himself every year, is left in a dilemma over the release of his film Chennai Express in 2013.

The coming year is going be crammed with some biggies for sure. Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar are already neck-and-neck to book the Eid slot for their respective films -- an untitled Sohail Khan production and Milan Luthria's Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai 2. On the other hand, Yash Raj Films has announced the arrival of its much-awaited Aamir Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer Dhoom 3 on Christmas 2013.

As for Shahrukh Khan's favourite slot Diwali, it might be taken in the coming year by Hrithik Roshan, who will arrive with his superhero flick Krrish 3.

In the melee of so many biggies, Chennai Express, starring Shahrukh and Deepika Padukone, may not stand the risk of going unnoticed, but it can't seem to find a slot where it doesn't have to compete with another big release for the box office moolah.

Just a passing glance at the release dates of 2013 shows us that Shahrukh Khan and Rohit Shetty have the option of releasing Chennai Express on August 15, but that would be less than a week after Eid, when Salman Khan would be ruling supreme at the box office.

Another option open for the Chennai Express team is to release the film in July. Rohit Shetty is known to have given the superhits like Bol Bachchan, Singham and Golmaal in July and he might try his luck again with Chennai Express. However, for that to happen the film's shooting and post production work will have to be expedited.

In short, while other stars and producers are quickly pre-empting the lucrative dates, Chennai Express still doesn't seem to know which track to take.