Golmaal Again to clash with 2.0 & Secret Superstar on Diwali 2017

Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn had earlier announced that the fourth instalment of their successful comic series, Golmaal Again, would be a Diwali 2017 release. However, of late speculations have been rife that the makers had decided to push the release ahead to 2018 because they did not want to set up a box-office clash with S Shankar's Rajinikanth-starrer 2.0, a sequel to his 2010 Tamil hit Enthiran, which Akshay Kumar, who plays the antagonist, had announced as a Diwali 2017 release with two tweets on November 20, 2016. Even as rumour mills went into overdrive, Rohit was inundated with messages from distributors and exhibitors enquiring if Golmaal Again would be keeping its date with the festival of lights again. Mirror has now learnt that it will be.

Confirming the news, Shibasish Sarkar, Chief Operating Officer of Reliance Entertainment, which is jointly producing the film with Rohit, says, "Golmaal Again, one of the most successful franchises of the Indian film industry, has created huge curiosity and demand among the exhibitors and distributors of the country. On their demand, we decided on a wide-scale release in the Diwali weekend of 2017, the festival period being apt for families and children."

While the first Golmaal had opened on July 14, 2006, the two others, which followed, Golmaal Returns and Golmaal 3, were both Diwali dhamakas. Part 4 that features usual suspects Ajay, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade and Kunal Kemmu and new faces Parineeti Chopra, Tabu and Neil Nitin Mukesh, recently wrapped up its Mumbai schedule and Rohit is presently shooting in Hyderabad. "After this month-long schedule they will take a break, followed by another schedule in Ooty towards the end of May or early June," says a source close to the development.

Reportedly, Aamir Khan's Secret Superstar, featuring Zaira Wasim, will also release this Diwali.