Akshay Kumar's Padman to now clash with Sidharth Malhotra's Aiyaary on Republic Day 2018

Brothers Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra are gearing up for a potential box office clash in 2018 when the former’s Padman will challenge the latter’s Aiyaary. Neeraj Pandey’s directorial, which was previously scheduled to release in February, will now hit the big screens on 26 January, 2018. Sidharth broke the news on Twitter through the caption of the film’s teaser, which is being termed as the ‘Aiyaary Sizzle’.

Happy to announce our next film #Aiyaary coming 26th Jan 2018 here’s a little sizzle https://t.co/LADEToChNg #BehindTheScenes @BajpayeeManoj @Rakulpreet@AnupamPkher @neerajpofficial @ShitalBhatiaFFW #NaseeruddinShah

— Sidharth Malhotra (@SidMalhotra) November 18, 2017

Aiyaary was initially scheduled to release on Republic Day 2018 but the makers reportedly pushed the release date in order to avoid a clash with S Shankar’s sci-fi entertainer 2.0, starring Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar. However, Kumar hinted that 2.0 may get pushed further, owing to its time-consuming special effects, and pulled his home production, R Balki’s social drama Padman, to 26 January. This must have prompted Pandey to reschedule the release of Aiyaary and bring it back to its original date. Interestingly, Pandey has directed Kumar in films like Special 26 and Baby. Kumar also did an extended cameo in Pandey’s production from earlier this year, Shivam Nair’s crime thriller Naam Shabana. They are collaborating yet again as director-actor in a spy drama titled Crack . Aiyaary also stars Rakul Preet Singh, Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah and Manoj Bajpayee. It is co-produced by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment, Pandey’s Plan C Studios and Sheetal Bhatia’s Friday Filmworks. Padman also stars Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte, along with Amitabh Bachchan in a special appearance. It is co-produced by Balki and Gauri Shinde’s Hope Productions, Kumar and Twinkle Khanna’s Mrs Funnybones Films. It is the biopic of social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham and is based on a short story in Khanna’s book The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad. (Also read — Padmavati, 2.0 postponed: Are production houses testing audience's patience)