Welcome Back backs out, PK to get solo release

The struggle to complete Anees Bazmee's Welcome Back in time for a Christmas release has ended. According to very reliable sources Anil Kapoor's dates played the villain of the piece, throwingWelcome Back's final two schedules into a chaos.

The film is now being readied for a January 23 release, alongside two heavyweight Akshay Kumar starrers Neeraj Pandey's Baby and Krish's Gabbar, thereby reducing the Republic Day weekend to a show of strength. It goes unsaid of course that one of Akshay Kumar's two films will move to a later date.

Revealing all the inside details a source says, "Producer Feroze Nadiadwala was keen on releasingWelcome Back on December 19 alongside Raj Kumar Hirani's PK. But because of Anil Kapoor's date issues, there are two remaining schedules in Dubai and Mumbai. So Feroz has agreed to shiftWelcome Back to January 23."

There is a reason why Feroze Nadiadwala has decided to take on two biggies on January 23. Akshay Kumar! Once the best of friends, Feroz Nadiadwala and Akshay Kumar had a massive fall-out. Akshay was, in fact the leading man of Welcome in 2007 and was supposed to star in the sequel. After his departure from Feroz Nadiadwala's cinema John Abraham replaced Akshay.

According to a source close to the Welcome series, bringing Welcome Back on the same Friday as Akshay's film (Baby or Gabbar) is Feroz's way of trying to be one-up on Akshay Kumar.

May the best manoeuvre win...

I caught up with Anees Bazmee at the airport as he was about to fly off to Dubai and he admitted to the change. "Yes, we are shifting out of December 19 as we are unlikely to be ready on time. In fact I am on the way right now to Dubai to finalize the next location for Welcome Back."

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