Sonali Josji Pitale (MID-DAY; April 9, 2014)

Produced by Karan Raj Kanwar and Anita Kanwar, the film, Lucky Kabootar, was slated to release on December 13 last year. But a few hours before its release, the makers chose to back out and the film did not keep its date with the silver screen. Now it has emerged that the film’s production team blames Ravi Almas of Dhanajay Films for the delay.

A source says, “The distribution team did not plan things properly. Due to this, there was a lot of misunderstanding between the production and the creative teams. After a long argument, the distributor and the production team chose to part ways. This is why the December release was cancelled at the last minute. Later on, the film’s fate was hanging in the balance and no one knew when it would release. We then got word that the issue has been sorted out, but Ravi Almas has been unreachable.”

Karan Raj Kanwar has now joined hands with distributors Amit Jalan, Pritam Jalan and Bharat Shah, and he will be releasing the film next week. Says Anita, “Due to a clash between the presenter and the distributors, we had to cancel the release last year. We have a new set of distributors on board.”

Mehul S Thakkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 14, 2013)

Some reviews are already out but Lucky Kabootar, which was supposed to release this Friday, is not in the theatres yet. And the reason is bizarre. Apparently, the presenter; Dhananjay Films, did not book the theatres because there was no money to release the film. This was conveyed to the producers just an hour before the film was to be premiered.

Mirror had earlier reported that Karan Raj Kanwar, the elder son of writer-producer-director Raj Kanwar, was planning revive his late father’s banner Inderjit Films Combine with Lucky Kabootar—a romantic comedy starring Eijaaz Khan and Kulraj Randhawa. The film is directed by Shammi Chhabra.

When contacted, the wife of late Raj Kanwar, Anita, and the film’s producer, said: “Salman Khan who was the special guest at the premiere was on his way to the theatre when, at around 8pm, we were told that there was a problem and the film was not getting a release. We were aghast!”

She claims they had got good advance booking. “But we could not get the show timings and then we were told that the presenter and the distributors had had a fall-out and the film would not see the light of the day,” sighs Anita, adding that she’s been talking to some well-wishers from the fraternity. “We’re trying to figure out a way to release the film as soon as possible.”