Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; May 21, 2014)

Model-turned-actress Simran Kaur Mundi seems to be in a Catch 22 situation. She has two films lined up for release on May 30 — a Punjabi film, Mundeyan Ton Bachke Rahin, and a Hindi romcom, Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi, produced by Ekta Kapoor. However, it is not the clash of release dates that’s put Simran in a spot of bother as both films cater to different audiences, but because she is struggling to juggle promotions of the two movies.

Since the very beginning, Mundeyan Ton… had been scheduled to hit the theatres in May while the initial release of Kuku Mathur… in April was pushed off by a month at the last minute. This has resulted in a clash of dates.

Simran’s Punjabi film producer, Pawan Gill, claims that Ekta’s marketing team has demanded the same dates that Simran had initially allotted to him. “I had her dates blocked well in advance for the promotions of our film. However, when her Hindi film was postponed to the same date as ours, it created a conflict. So, I have started promoting the film without her. I do hope that she joins us during the Delhi leg of promotions this weekend, as she is pivotal to our film’s marketing strategy,” Gill says.

Simran is currently promoting Ekta’s film. Says a Balaji spokesperson on behalf of Ekta, “All our marketing dates were discussed and they were taken from Simran in advance. We are only going by what was committed to us.”