Alia at the centre of box office clash

Alia Bhatt has found herself at the centre of a Bollywood box office clash that will see two of her biggest films face-off on the same weekend in January. Last week, Bhatt announced that her upcoming Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed Gangubai Kathiawadi will release in cinemas on January 6. However, a few days later, filmmaker SS Rajamouli also zeroed in on the same weekend to release his magnum opus RRR, which also stars Bhatt as one of the main protagonists.

The multilingual film, which brings together Tollywood actors Ram Charan, Jr NTR and Bollywood stars Ajay Devgn and Bhatt, will drop worldwide on January 7. The movie was earlier scheduled to release in October but was later postponed as many theatres were still not operating across India on account of the pandemic. While most film studios avoid releasing two big-ticket movies over the same weekend, the pandemic has forced many players to double up as they roll out their much delayed projects nearly a year later.