12 March,2026 09:53 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Ustaad Bhagat Singh
After Toxic was postponed, Pawan Kalyan's Ustaad Bhagat Singh was preponed, thus locking horns with Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar 2 at the box office, creating a strong buzz across the film industry. Now, Ustaad Bhagat Singh director Harish Shankar has reacted to the clash with relative calmness asserting that the box office has enough room for two to three big-ticket films to succeed at the same time.
In an interview with Gulte, Harish Shakar addressed Ustaad Bhagat Singh's clash with Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar 2, while clarifying that the decision regarding the release date was not in his hands.
When asked how he views the box office clash and going head-to-head with Aditya Dhar's sequel, the filmmaker said, "With all due respect, Aditya Dhar is a superior filmmaker. I watched Uri. He is a very impactful, very influential filmmaker. Having said that, India-wide films should consider Dhurandhar as competition. But we have our Telugu states for the film. Also, they both belong to very different genres. If, in place of Dhurandhar, it was an SRK (Shah Rukh Khan) movie, songs, full entertainer zone, then we would have thought, âOh, it's similar to our film.' But Bhagat Singh and Dhurandhar are totally different films."
Harish added, "Also, it's a collective decision. It wasn't in my hands alone. Somewhere within, I too felt, âI am doing a film with Pawan Sir after so long, and for that film to compete with any other big filmâ¦' And still, whether it's Sankranti or summer, it's always a combination. There is space for 2-3 big films to work. It's not like they won't show any other film except Dhurandhar across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana."
As the makers of Geetu Mohandas and Yash's Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups announced that their film has been pushed by two months amid the US-Israel-Iran conflict, Pawan Kalyan-starrer Ustaad Bhagat Singh moved up their date to take up the slot. The film was initially scheduled for release later this month. However, now, it will hit screens on March 19 on the occasion of Ugadi and will clash with Aditya Dhar's Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar 2.
Ustaad Bhagat Singh is adapted from Atlee and Vijay's 2016 film Theri and has been in production since 2023. The film also stars Sreeleela and Raashii Khanna. Meanwhile, Devi Sri Prasad and Thaman S composed the film's music and background score.
