Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 29, 2014)

When two or more movies are set to clash on the same Friday, industry factions come together to avert the collision. But this Gandhi Jayanti, forget peace as the the desi Hamlet enters Mary Kom’s boxing ring to pull a few punches of his own. Interestingly, Shahid is playing Haider while his once-steady date Priyanka Chopra is reliving the trials and triumphs of the gritty Olympian. Fortunately, for the duo, the three-way battle is now restricted to two with Kabir Khan’s Phantom, starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif, pushed to early 2015, but that’s not going to make the box-office fight any less daunting .

 While Kabir maintains that he will have wrapped up his film by September end, he’s leaving the release strategy to Disney UTV, the studio that’s bankrolling the spy thriller. “I start my next film with Salman Khan on November 9. So I have to complete Phantom well before that. After that it’s the studio’s decision to lock a release date. I am sure they will take into account all commercial aspects before taking a call,” says the director.

 Disney officials said that they will make an announcement soon. According to a source close to the studio, the film could be pushed to next year.

 Omung Kumar, the director of the Mary Kom biopic, says he’s not sure if he should be scared of Haider. “I strongly believe that every film has its own audience. If the film is good, it will survive,” he asserted, shrugging off the suggestion of shifting the release date to avoid the wrath of Haider. “We are definitely releasing on October 2.”

 The spokesperson of Haider said that the revenge drama, co-starring Shraddha Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Tabu is almost complete. “The post-production too should be done in a couple of months. The film will hit the theatres on October 2 for sure,” she asserted.