Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 2, 2017)

Of late, it has become a norm for Bollywood stars to go cinema theatre-hopping over the opening weekend to gauge audience reaction to their latest release. However, Varun Dhawan, whose Judwaa 2 opened on a strong note across screens last Friday, has refrained from making rounds of theatres after his Saturday night outing at a Juhu cinema went awry. It wasn't out of the ordinary when Dhawan headed to the multiplex along with a few friends on Saturday night, to see the audience reception. However, things quickly spiralled out of control when fans heard of the actor's presence. In a matter of minutes, he found himself mobbed by overenthusiastic fans. An onlooker reveals, "It was impossible for his security guards to get him out of there and escort him to the car."

The production team had planned theatre visits across the city as a post-release promotional strategy. However, as soon as word about the mob incident spread, owners of multiplexes as well as single screens dropped the idea. A source close to the actor informs, "The owners of several theatres — including Chandan, Gaiety and a few multiplexes — reached out to the film's marketing team and advised them against it. They told them that the security team at the theatres was not equipped to handle crowds."

Another source from Chandan says, "Single screen crowds can get aggressive. Hypothetically, if Varun visited the place, there would be a major rush among fans to see him. This could have resulted in damage to property. We wanted to avoid something like this. So it was in everyone's interest to cancel the visit." Shaken after Saturday's episode, Dhawan too agreed to cancelling further theatre visits. He spent the weekend at Shoojit Sircar's office discussing their next.