Inside scoop: The real story behind the Kaabil - Raees clash

Back in February Rakesh Roshan had announced the release date of his next production venture Kaabil that is directed by Sanjay Gupta featuring Hrithik Roshan and Yaami Gautam in lead roles. Cut to earlier this month, and Ritesh Sidhwani announces that the Excel Entertainment film Raeesfeaturing Shah Rukh Khan, will also release on the same day as Kaabil, January 26, 2017.

With both films scheduled to hit screens together, obviously the overall box office collections of each will be affected to some extent. So was there a meeting held between the makers of each film, Kaabiland Raees, to arrive at an understanding that would enable to each of the releases to maximize their box office earnings? Or did the makers of Raees, that was initially scheduled to release alongside the Salman Khan - Anushka Sharma starrer Sultan, opt for a release date that coincided with a public holiday. Commenting on the same, a well-placed insider source who was a part of the same meeting states, "Ritesh and Shah Rukh Khan did in fact meet Hrithik Roshan and Rakesh Roshan individually, however they did not directly request for a change in the release date of Kaabil. Post this meeting an announcement was made that Raees would release on the same day".

Says the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, "The Roshans were the first to announce the release date of Kaabil, ethically and morally the date is theirs. Excel and SRK could easily have opted for another day to release Raees, in fact apart from January 26 there are a couple of other holidays as well when Raees could release. But they have acted unethically by opting to release on the same day".

Whatever be the case, we guess it is finally the audience who will decide the eventual fate of both films and whether it will be Ritesh Sidhwani's Excel Entertainment that will become Raees, or whether Rakesh Roshan and company will be Kaabil enough.