No pressure from Shivsena to prepone ‘Cheat India’ says Bhushan Kumar

Producer of ‘Cheat India’ Bhushan Kumar has said that they didn’t faced pressure from political party Shivsena to prepone their film to avoid clash with late Shivsena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray’s biographical release.

Bhushan Kumar was interacting with the media along with his co-producers Tanuj Garg, Atul Kasbekar, actor Emraan Hashmi, Producer of ‘Thackeray’ and Shivsena MP Sanjay Raut and Shivsena leader Aaditya Thackeray on Friday in Mumbai.

‘Thackeray’, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui in key roles, is slated to release on January 25. Given that Shiv Sena has demanded a solo release for the film, the makers of ‘Cheat India’ decided to shift the release date of their film.

mraan Hashmi took to social media and announced the new release date of the film and dropped a fresh poster.

Alongside the poster, Emraan wrote, “I cheated !! My film #Cheatindia will release one week earlier.. 18th jan 2019 !! See you in the theatres.”

Shivsena is popularly known as aggressive political party who does agitations in violent manner. When asked Bhushan Kumar whether he faced any pressure from the party to prepone ‘Cheat India’, he said, “We definitely have lot of respect for Balasaheb Thackeray and now, a film is releasing on his life which has a great promo so, that is one of the reasons to prepone the film.”

Bhushan Kumar added that new release date of ‘Cheat India’ will be more beneficial in terms of film’s box-office collection, he said, “As producer’s point of view, I feel we have no ego against them and we haven’t faced pressure from them (Shivsena). Earlier we have shifted release of ‘Hindi Medium’ and ‘Aashiqui 2’ because we wanted to give justice to those films. We didn’t have the ego that if we change release date of the film then we will face the humiliation. We have lot of confidence in our film and that’s the reason we are preponing it.”

“Normally, people postpone their films so that, they can get more time to promote their film but we are very confident about it because it’s a content driven film and it needs its due so, to do that, we needed to bring it on a clear week.”

“If feel the day we are coming up with a film is a clear week and our film distributor Anil Thadani was also very confident about this week so, to avoid clash with ‘Thackeray’ in terms of business and our respect towards Balasaheb Thackeray, we have taken this decision.”

Talking about decision of ‘Cheat India’ makers to prepone release date of the film, Emraan Hashmi said, “We had a release date for our film ‘Cheat India’ which was planned on 25th of January of this month and we have decided to prepone it to the 18th of January. There are couple reasons for that.”

“One big reason is that we just felt that our film is very special and high concept film. Its talks about a subject which has never been dabbled upon. Education system is prevalent problem in our culture and in our country. There is never been a film like this attempted and we felt that by preponing release of the film, we will get a open week, enough breathing space and enough elbow room for our film to grow and take consciousness of the audience and we will get benefit of second week also.”

“The another reason is that there is lot of noise on Rupublic day weekend so, we felt that we should get a better open week. It’s better for everyone. I have loved the promo of ‘Thackeray’. It’s looking great and I wish them all the very best.”

Thanking makers of ‘Cheat India’ producer of ‘Thackeray’, Sanjay Raut said, “I am thankful to team of ‘Cheat India’ because you all have sorted out this issue with Aaditya (Thackeray). I feel today’s day is important day because all of us have come together and everyone knows that Balasaheb Thackeray’s always used to tell that ‘live and let live’.”

“Balasaheb Thackeray not only loved film industry but he protected them as well whether it’s relating to films, music or issues between producers and directors. People always used to come at Balasaheb Thackeray and he used to solve the issue so, I feel because of Balasaheb’s inspiration we have come together to solve the issue of release dates of our respective films.”

“Balasaheb was this country’s biggest star. He wasn’t a political star but he was an artiste so, with that point of view, I feel it was his will that we all should come together and take this decision.”

Emraan Hashmi and Shreya Dhanwantary starrer ‘Cheat India’ will release on 18th January, 2019. While ‘Thackeray’ will clash with Kangana Ranaut starrer ‘Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi’ on Republic day weekend.