The famous director Prashanth Neel recently opened up about the unexpected clash between his film Salaar starring Prabhas and Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki which was directed by Rajkumar Hirani.
Speaking in an interview, Prashanth expressed regret over the scheduling conflict, emphasising that the Salaar team had no intention of competing directly with Dunki. According to Prashanth, the team selected the same release date based on astrological guidance, despite Dunki having secured the Christmas 2023 slot well in advance.
Prashanth Neel stated, “That was the only date we had. We apologise to (Dunki’s) team also. They announced the (release date) first. It is not a good thing for anybody to be putting their movie on the date which has been announced (by someone else). They had announced the film’s release date a year before so apologies from the whole team of Salaar to the team of Dunki.”
He further said, “We did not want a situation like that to come. They are obviously colossal, Shah Rukh sir and Rajkumar sir are colossal. We didn’t want a situation like that. But it came up only because of the astrology and everything else.”
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Prashanth Neel added that they had hoped to avoid such a clash as they hold great respect for Shah Rukh Khan and Rajkumar Hirani.
The overlap stirred tension among fans on social media, with supporters of Prabhas and SRK engaging in heated online exchanges. Fans of Shah Rukh and Prabhas took digs at each other’s stars, though neither Prabhas nor SRK commented on the fan-driven clash.
Despite the conflict, both the films performed impressively at the box office. According to Bollywood Hungama, Dunki earned approximately Rs 101.50 crore during its opening weekend, while Salaar outperformed with an impressive Rs 209 crore, according to industry reports.
Which movie did you like more – Salaar or Dunki?