Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; February 13, 2014)

Filmmakers Vipul Shah and Pooja Bhatt have locked horns over the rights to the title, Holiday. While Bhatt has the rights to the title, it has emerged that Shah has now gone ahead and registered the title with another association.

“Vipul approached me last year seeking to use the title Holiday. But I had to turn him down as I need to explore the potential of my 2006 film on satellite and other platforms. He then approached the Film and Television Producers Guild of India with an application for the titles, Holiday and Holiday — A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. The guild rejected that application since my partners on Holiday — Shreya Creations — have duly registered the title with them till 2016,” says Bhatt.

She adds that Vipul Shah has now approached Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPAA) with the same application and has somehow managed to secure the title with the tag line. “My memories of the Thank You fiasco where UTV got the title through IMPAA in a similar fashion still haunt me. This behaviour is unbecoming of a filmmaker like Vipul Shah – it is an unethical move that exposes our flawed system of governance yet again. How will the film industry be taken seriously by the government of India when filmmakers loot and steal without hesitation from their own?” she says.

When contacted, Vipul Shah admitted that he had approached Pooja Bhatt for the title. “ After she refused me, I went to the IMPPA and registered the title, Holiday — A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. If Pooja still has issue with the title, I am willing to meet her and resolve the same.”

Hiren Kotwani (BOMBAY TIMES; February 12, 2014)

A number of factors make Holiday — A Soldier Is Never Off Duty exciting. It’s a collaboration between Akshay Kumar and Vipul A Shah, who have given hits like Aankhen, Waqt — The Race Against Time, Namastey London and Singh Is Kinng. Then, it’s helmed by A R Murugadoss, who pioneered the 100-crore club with his first Hindi film, Ghajini. Now, the trade is curious to see his second outing. Not to forget the pairing of Akshay and Sonakshi, who have given a success like Rowdy Rathore.

All eyes are on Holiday... because it has an engaging story revolving around an army captain — played by Akshay — some high-end action, romance and a good soundtrack by Pritam.

Vipul, who is the producer of the film, says, “In every person’s life, some special films happen. I’m lucky that I got so many special films with Akshay in the last 10 years. There are huge expectations from the team. We’re looking forward to it ourselves.” For now, they are awaiting the reactions to the trailer, which goes online today at 2.30 pm.

Akshay says, “To work alongside my long-time friend Vipul after so many extraordinary films together, on a project that is helmed by Murugadoss, is of course something I couldn’t wait to get my hands on.”

He adds, “It’s great to see the magic my director creates with professionals like our director of photography Nutty, (Nataraja Subramaniam), our heroine Sonakshi and the rest of our talented crew. It’s also the first time I’m playing a DIA (Defence Intelligence Agent), a role I’ve enjoyed portraying more than I ever imagined.”

Murugadoss says, “I was a little reserved initially, but Akshay made me feel very comfortable. Now, I can say that I’ve got a close friend in the Hindi film industry. Being a filmmaker, Vipul sir lends his directors great support, like in this case, me.”

Sanjeev Lamba, CEO, Reliance Entertainment, the co-producers of the project, says, “This is a high-octane action thriller. I hope fans enjoy a spectacular summer when the film opens globally.”

The last word is reserved for Akshay, who signs off, saying, “The next time someone asks me what I’d have done if I weren’t an actor, I’d say that being a DIA is on the top of my list.”

Holiday — A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, presented by Reliance Entertainment, releases June 6.

Mehul S Thakkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 11, 2014)

At a recent award function, producer Vipul Shah jokingly said on stage that couldn’t unveil the trailer of his upcoming Akshay Kumar starrer, Holiday, as the music is not ready. Now this was far from truth as Pritam Chakraborty had already delivered the songs to Vipul. This wisecrack resulted in fans riling against the composer on a social networking site for his late latif ways.

According to a source, when Pritam woke up to these comments, he took a screenshot and texted it to Vipul. The producer admitted to Mirror that Pritam was upset because it was being misconstrued as him unprofessionalism. “I explained to him that it was just a joke but he groused that people didn’t understand such jokes and I should have been more careful,” says Vipul.

Vipul said that the controversy was unnecessary and blown out of proportion. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. I have already clarified with Pritam over the phone. He is not upset with me and there is no bad blood between us.”

Once again, two of Sonakshi Sinha’s films are clashing at the BO. Which one will she prefer to promote this time?
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; January 22, 2014)

When her last two films, R… Rajkumar and Bullett Raja were up for release, their back-to-back release dates meant that Sonakshi Sinha had to juggle the promotions of the two films. Looks like the actress is in a fix again. Action Jackson, her film with Ajay Devgn, and Holiday, with Akshay Kumar, are both releasing on June 6. After the release of Aamir Khan starrer, PK, was pushed to December, producers of both her films are now eyeing the same release date.

Dividing time between the promotional activities for these two upcoming films will prove to be quite a task for Sonakshi and it is likely that she will have to choose one over the other like she did the last time. It was said that she had promoted Prabhu Dheva’s R... Rajkumar with Shahid Kapoor more aggressively (due to her rapport with them) than Tigmanshu Dhulia’s film, Bullett Raja, which had Saif Ali Khan as her co-star.

This time around, sources state that it will be a tough call. On one hand, Action Jackson is directed by Prabhu Deva, whom she calls her favourite director, while AR Murugadoss’s Holiday stars Akshay Kumar, whom she considers to be her lucky mascot.

Says a source, “The last time it so happened that the release date for R... Rajkumar was declared in advance and her dates were locked for its promotions. At that time, Bullett Raja was slated for a September release. But when the date was shifted to November, it upset her schedule and accommodating dates for both the films proved to be quite difficult.” This time too, the actress doesn’t want to pick one film over the other.

“But it will be undoubtedly be difficult for her to promote the two films and come up with an excuse for choosing one over the other,” adds the source.

It remains to be seen who will win this round: Prabhu Deva and Devgn or Akki.
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Mehul S Thakkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 22, 2014)

While Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn don’t have a history of rivalry, that could change in the coming months. Even though it is being said that a clash of their releases has been averted, Mirror has learnt that the Ajay starrer Action Jackson and Holiday toplining Akshay are still on a collision course. June 6, the first Friday after the end IPL season, will see two big south directors, Prabhu Dheva and A R Murugadoss, competing at the box office. But even more interesting are the backstage developments which led to this face-off. A source told Mirror, “Vipul Shah, the producer of Holiday, had initially slotted its release for May 1. But, Ajay approached his studio (Reliance) with the request to bring forward the date to avoid coming on the same day as his Action Jackson. Vipul agreed and decided to lock June 6 after confirming that Aamir Khan's P.K had moved to Christmas.”

Sunil Lulla, MD of Eros, the production house helming the Ajay starrer, also contacted Vidhu Vinod Chopra to confirm if P.K had been pushed ahead to December. “When he got a yes he discussed the development with Ajay and decided to release Action Jackson too on June 6,” added the source.

When contacted Vipul confirmed the news and said, “We announced the new release date on Monday and within two hours they too made an announcement that their film will open on June 6. Personally I feel there is no need for films to come together. When we were requested to move the film, we did. It’s time for Eros to show the same grace to avoid the clash. I believe Ajay will never do this deliberately.”

Sunil Lulla maintains, “I was not aware that Akshay’s film is also coming on the same day.”

Interestingly, Akshay had earlier pushed Holiday from March 28 to make way for Ritiesh Deshmukh’s Marathi film Yellow. Akshay too produces regional films and decided to not cut into Riteish’s film.

Said a source, “Akshay really liked Yellow as it has a strong message. Akshay wanted the film to get an uninterrupted run without the audience divided over another big film.”

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

Latest news has it that Aamir Khan starrer PK will no longer release on June 6; instead it will release on Christmas day. Cashing in on the situation, both Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar now want to release their films on June 6. It maybe recalled here that the initial release date of both the films — Devgn’s Action Jackson and Akshay Kumar’s Holiday — was May 1; however, it looks like the two will fight it out on June 6. Surprising considering that Ajay had earlier requested the producers of Akshay’s film to postpone their release so that they can avert a clash.

When contacted, Sanjeev Lamba, CEO, Reliance Entertainment confirmed this. He said, “Ajay had requested that I move the release date of our film Holiday from May 1. So when we heard that P. K. was no longer releasing on June 6, we decided to slot our release accordingly. We were not aware that now Ajay has shifted his film Action Jackson to the same day.”

Sunil Lulla, the distributor and producer for Action Jackson, said he was not aware of any clash. He said, “As far as I know, Holiday was releasing on May 1. In fact, we had a discussion with Ajay Devgn last week and it was mutually decided that our film would release on June 6.” Whether it is a case of misunderstanding or done on purpose, the Ajay-Akshay clash seems inevitable now.

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 20, 2014)

It's been over two years since he’s taken a break. Every time he planned one, a film stretched its deadline and another followed. Pritam confesses he is an abysmal failure in time management even after a management grad made him a quadrant. "I don’t even have time to follow the quadrant,” he sighs, pulling a face.

But this time the self-confessed workaholic has decided not to sign any film till June-July and during this time he intends to take a few trips. “Through a social networking site I've found old friends ánd I want to meet them, particularly a classmate who lives in Pune and has been inviting me to visit him for ages. I also want to visit my hometown Kolkata, take my parents to an Ayurvedic health centre in Kerala and my kids to Disneyland,” he chirps with the excitement of a child.

From 18 films a year he’s come down to six and intends to cut down to two to three. Coming up are Shaadi Ke Side Effects and Holiday. There's also Phantom and Jagga Jasoos though the latter will probably arrive in 2015. “I’ve got a lot of offers post Dhoom 3 but I’m not signing anything till I’ve taken a break. Then maybe I’ll take on a few musical romances, a genre I like best,” he says.

Pritam admits that Phantom, a spy thriller, offers little scope for music but he was wowed by Kabir Khan’s script. Ditto for Jagga Jasoos, a detective movie, but he’s sure Anurag Basu will do something with the music and equally sure they'll be debating over the songs till the CD is out. He has a good feeling about Shaadi Ke Side Effects and wants to make music like Jab We Met, Life in a... Metro and Barfi! "Romantic songs come naturally to me but after a few item songs worked that’s what directors want,"he says.

Top of the list is Dhoom machale. The phrase came from Aditya Chopra and the riff he’d sing on the sets became its signature theme. “Today you can’t take the franchise forward without a Dhoom machale. I’ve re-worked the original twice and there are instant comparisons and disappointment. But if I don’t, there will be more disappointment. It's a Catch 22 situation,” he says, happy the franchise is getting bigger.

Any pressures from directors to toe a hit line? There are “but 70 per cent of the time I don’t give in and even when I do it’s never without a fight”. Occasionally, there are directors like Ayan Mukherji who back him all the way even when he makes last minute changes.

Was Badtameez Dil an attempt to esatablish Ranbir Kapoor as the modern-day Shammi Kapoor? “No, for me it was a tribute to Kishore Kumar. The gibberish lyrics reminiscent of his Eena meena dika. Had he been alive, he’d have sung it,” Pritam asserts.

Muses and references have got charges of plagiarism levelled against him. He admits in the initial stages he made a few mistakes and the tag stuck. But now he's original. His erstwhile partner Jeet exploded on the scene with Aashiqui 2. Any chance of the two collaborating on a score? “Our parting was amicable but I don’t see us getting back together.”

He impatiently brushes off a lock from his face and blurts out, “I will cut my hair so no one recognises me when I am travelling. I'd shave too but before that, I need to lose weight or my cheeks will pop out!”