Inquiry ordered on Devgn's plea, new tussle begins between Talaash-Khiladi 786

On the petition of Ajay Devgn Films that YRF is running negative campaign against its movieSon of Sardaar,the Competition Appellate Tribunal has ordered an inquiry into the matter. An ADF spokesperson said in a statement, "The Competition Appellate Tribunal has seen merit in our case and has issued notice for enquiring into the anti- competitive activities of YRF about the tie in arrangement to block our movieSon of Sardaaron the day of Diwali". The spokesperson added, “Looking at YRF's statement that only 821 theatres have already executed agreement with YRF for showingJab Tak Hai Jaanon the Diwali day, had a so called tie in arrangement in comparison to 1407 single screens forEk Tha Tiger, the Competition Appellate Tribunal did not provide an interim relief".

"This leaves the balance screens which have not executed agreements with YRF to showJab Tak Hai Jaantill date to be free to exhibitSon of Sardaarwithout any tie in arrangement of YRF. This would include 586 single screens which had earlier shownEk Tha Tiger. Accordingly, we would now be approaching all theatres who have not executed any agreement for showingJab Tak Hai Jaanfor exhibiting our movie," the statement added. "If the above facts are found to be false which would be proven through evidence after the release of the movie, we would not only continue to fight against YRF's anti competitive activities on our own behalf but also on the behalf of the entire industry," it further said.

In the meantime reports are coming that the producers of Aamir Khan’sTalaashhave asked single screen owners to allow an uninterrupted two-week run to their film, which would ultimately affect Akshay'sKhiladi 786. According to a source, "First YRF asked single screen owners to give their Diwali release starring Shah Rukh Khan as many screens as Salman Khan'sEk Tha Tiger. This put a lot of pressure on most exhibitors sinceEk Tha Tigerwas a single big Eid release and on Diwali there were two big films. And now, the makers ofTalaashare asking for a continuous two-week run. Ideally, most theatre owners would like to decide on the film's second week run after assessing the response in the first week”.