Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; September 30, 2017)

There's insurmountable pressure when your maiden directorial venture is about to hit screens. Advait Chandan, whose directorial debut Secret Superstar is one of the Diwali releases of the year, has an added responsibility to shoulder — his film has to battle Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Again, a box- office favourite since its inception in 2006.

However, Aamir Khan’s protégé is not nervous about locking horns with Shetty’s comic caper. “The two films belong to two different genres. So, the audiences will probably not be the same either. Also, it’s the festive season, so I am sure audience wouldn’t restrict themselves to watching only one film. I hope both the films do well,” says Chandan.

At the trailer launch of the film, Khan too had expressed similar sentiment as he had said, “I think Diwali has enough space for two releases.”

While Shetty’s film boasts of stars like Ajay Devgn and Parineeti Chopra, Chandan’s film sees Zaira Wasim. The director says he couldn’t have found a stronger protagonist than Wasim. “I wanted to hijack Zaira from Dangal. I had told Nitesh Tiwari [Dangal director] to find another girl for the role, as I wanted her for my film. But he didn’t relent.”

When mid-day reached out to Shetty, he was unperturbed about the impending clash. “We have clashed with some or the other film during every Golmaal release.”