This year, the Independence Day weekend will witness the clash of two titans at the box office. Akshay Kumar and Neeraj Pandey's collaboration, Toilet - ­ Ek Prem Katha will release on August 11, 2017. Shah Rukh Khan's Imtiaz Ali-directorial, co-starring Anushka Sharma has also been scheduled for the same date.

Incidentally, it was Akshay who had first claimed the date. After Rustom's release last August, he had announced that Crack will hit screens on August 11. However, with Crack getting delayed, the actor and his filmmaker friend reclaimed the date with Toilet - Ek Prem Katha, which was originally scheduled for June 2. In November last year, Salman Khan announced August 11 as the release date for his buddy SRK's movie.

A source associated with Akshay and Neeraj's films told BT, “The other producers of this film, Prerna Arora and Arjun N Kapoor, also felt that Toilet - Ek Prem Katha is more suitable for the Independence Day weekend. Taking into view the Prime Minister's Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, everyone felt it will connect with people.“

A face-off between Akshay and SRK was averted four years ago, when the producers of Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaraa deferred its release by a week to avoid a clash with Khan's Chennai Express.
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Upala KBR (DNA; March 29, 2017)

Akshay Kumar’s next Toilet — Ek Prem Katha will release on August 11 instead of June 2, leading to a head-on clash with the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Rehnuma. Trade analysts attempt to predict the outcome of the clash.

And here’s what the issue essentially is. Of late, Akshay is consistently churning out successful films, with most managing Rs 100 crore returns. SRK’s past few films have met with middling success for a star of his stature.

But the two have a history of clashes between them. Their first was in 1993 between Khan’s Maya Memsaab and Kumar’s Waqt Hamara Hai. Their last one was in 2013, when Chennai Express went up against Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara, which released a week after CE. AK won the first clash, SRK the last and the ones in between.

Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi opines, “While Akshay will rock it in India, Shah Rukh will do that overseas. They also have powerful distributors behind them, so it will be a clash of equals. Eventually of course, depending on the content, the better film will win — as it always does!”

Super Cinema editor Amul Vikas Mohan admits it’s a big clash (SRK’s third in a row) but believes it’s too early to predict the box-office outcome as not a single frame of both films is out. But he does suggest a remedy. “What we do need is to have more screens in India and that’s what will really help. We have around 200 films releasing a year, but only 52 weeks to release them, so it’s almost impossible to have solo-week releases always unless you are a solo star but that line, too, is blurring now,” he says.

The date is important, too, he says, as it offers the films releasing on August 11 a five-day weekend ending on Independence day (Aug 15). He admits, “While Toilet could have been postponed because it was due to release in the middle of Ramzan, there’s no reason to make a fuss about August 11 as he and Neeraj Pandey had picked the date for Crack way before Shah Rukh and Imtiaz Ali announced their release date. All AK & Co are doing is coming with a different film on the same date. That’s all.”

Trade analyst Girish Johar adds, “It all depends on the content. If the content of both the films is good they will find their audiences. It’s a long holiday weekend and people will see both the films. Also, both SRK and Akshay are great actors and the genres are different. It’s true that Akshay has a good successful track record with four back-to-back hits but it’s nothing for SRK to be worried about.”