Singham Again team was being ‘unfair’, says Bhushan Kumar about Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 clash: ‘It got unpleasant, but they assured me…’

In a recent interview, Bhushan Kumar opened up about the Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Singham Again clash at the box office.

Mumbai | Updated: November 13, 2024 11:18 AM IST

4 min read

Bhushan Kumar on Bhool Bhualiyaa 3 and Singham Again clash (Photos: Kartik Aaryan, Ajay Devgn / Instagram, Varinder Chawla)

The biggest box office clashe of 2024 took place on Diwali between director Anees Bazmee’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again. And while both films emerged as hits, things weren’t always pleasant between the two camps prior to release day. Now, in a conversation with Connect Cine, T-Series chief Bhushan Kumar revealed that Ajay Devgn, Rohit Shetty, and he tried their best to avert the clash. However, there was no way around this as commitments had already been made.

Ahead of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Singham Again’s release, the Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 team raised an alarm about unfair screen allocation. Shedding light on it, Bhushan Kumar said, “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 also added, “Eventually, I suggested starting the advance booking and seeing the response, because our film was buzzing. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 managed to have a Rs 36 crore-plus opening opposite a big film in competition. 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 loses. When they saw the result, they also helped us.”

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Bhushan Kumar also shared how he met with the Singham Again team and they tried to avoid the clash, but couldn’t. Explaining the reason behind it, he said, “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, they also had commitments. Both parties had their limitations, but Ajay sir was very positive about it. We both tried to avoid the clash, but the situation was unavoidable. If I shifted the film, Bhool Bhulaiyya 3 would have been released next year on OTT, upsetting their budget.”

The T-Series chairman also stated that “In the future, two big films should not clash, since it affects the business.” Both Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 have had a decent run at the box office. While Singham Again has managed to earn more than Rs 150 crore at the domestic box office, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 has crossed the 200 crore mark with its collections.

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