Sharukh Would Have Worried Me, Not Dhurandhar -Harish
They felt that the Dhurandhar 2 craze would eat away into Ustaad Bhagat Singh’s collections. What does director Harish Shankar have to say about this?;
At a time when the “Dhurandhar 2” mania is gripping the whole of the nation with the trailer of the movie amassing more than 200 million views cumulatively on YouTube, and grabbing all the eyeballs, many trade experts felt that Pawan Kalyan’s Ustaad Bhagat Singh has unnecessarily advanced the date from 26th March to 19th March. They felt that the Dhurandhar 2 craze would eat away into Ustaad Bhagat Singh’s collections. What does director Harish Shankar have to say about this?
“Dhurandhar 2 is a different type of film, and definitely the way Aditya Dhar crafts his patriotic film, it’s for a different set of audience. I’m not even worried about Ustaad’s clash with Dhurandhar 2, because ours is a pure Telugu-states movie, while the latter is a pan-India film. I would have worried more if a Shah Rukh Khan film was coming on that day with lots of songs and entertainment, but not Dhurandhar,” said Harish Shankar, thus clarifying that both are two different genre films catered to different audiences.
At the same time, Harish Shankar also explained that the decision to advance the release came from distribution and exhibition circles, as the holiday of Ugadi is likely to fetch the film. “Festivals like Sankranti and Ugadi are usually big holidays for Telugu states, and they could easily accommodate 2-3 movies at the box office without any worries. So even if both Dhurandhar 2 and Ustaad are releasing on the same day, that’s a win-win situation only,” felt Harish Shankar.
Bankrolled by Mythri Movie Makers and featuring Sreeleela and Raashi Khanna as the female leads, Ustaad Bhagat Singh is a part-remake of Tamil film Theri, with Harish Shankar changing almost 50% of the story and inserting his trademark comedy big time.