Once again, two of Sonakshi Sinha’s films are clashing at the BO. Which one will she prefer to promote this time?
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; January 22, 2014)

When her last two films, R… Rajkumar and Bullett Raja were up for release, their back-to-back release dates meant that Sonakshi Sinha had to juggle the promotions of the two films. Looks like the actress is in a fix again. Action Jackson, her film with Ajay Devgn, and Holiday, with Akshay Kumar, are both releasing on June 6. After the release of Aamir Khan starrer, PK, was pushed to December, producers of both her films are now eyeing the same release date.

Dividing time between the promotional activities for these two upcoming films will prove to be quite a task for Sonakshi and it is likely that she will have to choose one over the other like she did the last time. It was said that she had promoted Prabhu Dheva’s R... Rajkumar with Shahid Kapoor more aggressively (due to her rapport with them) than Tigmanshu Dhulia’s film, Bullett Raja, which had Saif Ali Khan as her co-star.

This time around, sources state that it will be a tough call. On one hand, Action Jackson is directed by Prabhu Deva, whom she calls her favourite director, while AR Murugadoss’s Holiday stars Akshay Kumar, whom she considers to be her lucky mascot.

Says a source, “The last time it so happened that the release date for R... Rajkumar was declared in advance and her dates were locked for its promotions. At that time, Bullett Raja was slated for a September release. But when the date was shifted to November, it upset her schedule and accommodating dates for both the films proved to be quite difficult.” This time too, the actress doesn’t want to pick one film over the other.

“But it will be undoubtedly be difficult for her to promote the two films and come up with an excuse for choosing one over the other,” adds the source.

It remains to be seen who will win this round: Prabhu Deva and Devgn or Akki.
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Mehul S Thakkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 22, 2014)

While Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn don’t have a history of rivalry, that could change in the coming months. Even though it is being said that a clash of their releases has been averted, Mirror has learnt that the Ajay starrer Action Jackson and Holiday toplining Akshay are still on a collision course. June 6, the first Friday after the end IPL season, will see two big south directors, Prabhu Dheva and A R Murugadoss, competing at the box office. But even more interesting are the backstage developments which led to this face-off. A source told Mirror, “Vipul Shah, the producer of Holiday, had initially slotted its release for May 1. But, Ajay approached his studio (Reliance) with the request to bring forward the date to avoid coming on the same day as his Action Jackson. Vipul agreed and decided to lock June 6 after confirming that Aamir Khan's P.K had moved to Christmas.”

Sunil Lulla, MD of Eros, the production house helming the Ajay starrer, also contacted Vidhu Vinod Chopra to confirm if P.K had been pushed ahead to December. “When he got a yes he discussed the development with Ajay and decided to release Action Jackson too on June 6,” added the source.

When contacted Vipul confirmed the news and said, “We announced the new release date on Monday and within two hours they too made an announcement that their film will open on June 6. Personally I feel there is no need for films to come together. When we were requested to move the film, we did. It’s time for Eros to show the same grace to avoid the clash. I believe Ajay will never do this deliberately.”

Sunil Lulla maintains, “I was not aware that Akshay’s film is also coming on the same day.”

Interestingly, Akshay had earlier pushed Holiday from March 28 to make way for Ritiesh Deshmukh’s Marathi film Yellow. Akshay too produces regional films and decided to not cut into Riteish’s film.

Said a source, “Akshay really liked Yellow as it has a strong message. Akshay wanted the film to get an uninterrupted run without the audience divided over another big film.”