Will The Makers Of Bala Now Prepone The Release Of The Film To 1st November To Compete With Ujda Chaman?
Will The Makers Of Bala Now Prepone It's Release?
Updated : October 25, 2019 11:15 AM IST
By now the entire country knows that Ayushmann Khurrana’s Bala and Sunny Singh’s Ujda Chaman are based on the same plot and the storylines are more or less the same. Earlier the makers of Bala had shifted the release of the film to an earlier date. Later on, the makers of Ujda Chaman had approached the court to intervene and they also appealed for a stay on the release of Ayushmann’s film. And now, the release date of Ujda Chaman has also been preponed to 1st November!
However, amidst all this ruckus, it is now being said that the makers of Bala too are considering to shift the release of the film to an earlier date! But, we wonder how because Abhishekh had filed a petition citing copyright infringement and there is a court hearing on the 4th November and until the matter is resolved, there is no chance that Bala will be released before that!
Abhishek’s movie is an official remake of the Kannada movie Ondu Motteya Kathe, starring Sunny Singh, Maanvi Gagroo and Saurabh Shukla and is produced by Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek.
A Bollywood Hungama report quotes a trade source as saying, “Abhishek Pathak had filed a petition citing copyright infringement with the Supreme Court to stall the release of Ayushmann Khurrana’s Bala, as it was releasing just a day (November 7) before his movie. The petition stated that there were similarities between the storylines of Bala and Ujda Chaman. There will be a court hearing on the issue on November 4 so one doesn’t know how Bala can come on November 1. There was also a screening of Bala on 19th October where Abhishek saw the movie. No mobile phones or equipment were allowed to be carried for the screening. The concept may be the same and though Bala is a bigger film, nobody wants similar concept-based movies to come out before them. Nobody is wrong here."
The report further quotes the director of Ujda Chaman Abhishekh Pathak as saying, “ “I have the official remake rights of the Kannada movie Ondu Motteya Kathe which we have remade to Ujda Chaman. I preponed our movie as I wanted to give us both a solo week. It’s a much fairer deal for them but tougher competition for us as we have three Diwali releases the week before us but this way, we can have our own share of revenues. Let both films earn. They have been shifting their dates and I don’t want to get into an ego battle because egos are not bigger than the film industry. Theirs is a bigger film but now that we have shifted, both movies will get a solo release. I don’t know or understand why they keep shifting their dates… Are they not confident about their product or were they shaken up after watching my trailer?”
The Bollywood Hungama report further states the Ujda Chaman director tried to connect with the makers of Bala. The reports quote Abhishek Pathak as further revealing, “Initially, I tried reaching out to their banner Maddock Films when they were about to start the movie. I told them that the rights of movie Ondu Motteya Kathe were with me and sent them a legal notice also, to which they confirmed that the only similarities were with the bald character. But now, when I saw the Bala trailer, I saw there were lots of similarities. They had announced their release date as November 15, that’s why I moved to November 8 and then they changed theirs to November 7.”
The report further has Abhishekh saying that he has seen Bala on the 19th October screening. “Yes, I have seen Bala but I am not allowed to talk about it as the matter is under sub-judice.”
Again, a source close to Dinesh Vijan, the director of Bala is quoted in the report as saying, “as of now they are not shifting the release date from 7th November.”