On Diwali, November 1, Bhushan Kumar backed ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ clashed with Rohit Shetty’s ensemble cop film ‘Singham Again.’ Prior to the release, the horror-comedy team approached the Competition Commission of India over the ‘favouritism’ in screen allocation. While ‘Singham Again’ were given 60% of screens in the prime time, ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ was allotted only 40%. Moreover, the cop film asked certain single-screen theatres to dedicate all showtimes to the Rohit Shetty film, reportedly. Notably, PVR Inox was the distributor of ‘Singham Again.’ As both the films cross the 200-crore mark domestically, T-series’ Bhushan Kumar breaks silence on the distasteful tussle.

In a recent interview, Bhushan Kumar said that ‘Singham’s team was being unfair about the screen allocation, given that were equally a big film. “I didn’t go to the Competition Commission. We had a lot of arguments with the Singham Again team because they were being unfair. In all survey reports, we were equal, on that basis, we had requested the competition commission to keep the screen allocation 50-50. Since our film was equally big, we demanded equal justice. But there was some personal interest behind this favouritism, I don’t want to blame the theatre chains. Since they were the distributors of the other film, they had a few reservations. Still, they wanted to support us to a great extent. We had a lot of tug-of-war between this.”

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He further added that he suggested advanced bookings to evaluate the response received by the films. ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ recorded a 36-crore plus opening despite the mega clash, iterating its anticipation. “We had our tussle over it, but in the end, it all got normalised. Both the films were doing very well. It got a little unpleasant, but they also assured me that they wouldn’t let my film bear losses. When they saw the result, they also helped us.”

The producer continued that while both the stakeholders tried to avoid the clash, it was not possible for either to shift dates. “I even met Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty. I told them, I had announced the film first and had some commitments to OTT platforms which is why I could not push the film. They understood, but they also had their limitations as the film’s theme was inspired by Ramayana, so they could not miss the Diwali release.”

Also Read: ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ crosses 300 crores globally; gives Kartik Aaryan his career-best

Meanwhile, ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ is led by Kartik Aaryan alongside Vidya Balan and Madhuri Dixit. Joining Aaryan is Triptii Dimri as his love interest. Additionally, Vijay Raaz plays a key role in the film while Rajpal Yadav returns as the sidekick.

On the flip side, ‘Singham Again’ stars Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Deepika Padukone, Tiger Shroff, and Arjun Kapoor. Notably, the film will also star Akshay Kumar from ‘Sooryavanshi’ and Ranveer Singh from ‘Simmba.’