Ae Dil... gets 'nod' for Diwali release

MNS withdraws vandalism threat; Karan Johar to pay Rs 5 crore towards army welfare in return

The curtains have finally come down on an almost month-long drama surrounding the release of the film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, written and directed by film-maker Karan Johar.

The roughly Rs 50-60 crore production, billed as this Diwali's most-awaited release, will open to audiences on October 28 after Johar pays a Rs 5 crore token amount to the army welfare fund as "penance" for casting Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in the film. The movie will also carry a message before it is screened honouring Indian soldiers who were killed by Pakistani terrorists in Uri.

The clearance to Ae Dil Hai Mushkil will mean that the other big-starrer, Shahrukh Khan's Rs 80 crore production Raess, which also casts Pakistani actors, is likely to go through when it comes up for release next year. Raess, say sources, will also have to pay a token amount towards army welfare and so will another Shahruhkh Khan film, Dear Zindagi.

The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which had been opposing these films on the grounds that their makers were anti-national, is now claiming victory. In a press conference on Saturday, Thackeray said, "All the producers who have Pakistani artistes in their films will as penance have to pay some money. I suggested Rs 5 crore per film."

Johar is expected to finalise his distribution plans for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil over the next few days, given that much of this had come to a standstill in the last one month.

Interest in the film remains high due to the unusual pairing of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor, lead actors in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. The film also stars Anushka Sharma besides Fawad Khan.

In a video recording a few days ago, Johar had said the livelihood of 300 people was dependent on the film and that it should release.

A Karan Johar film is typically available in as many as 3,000 screens across the country and also does well in the US and UK, where the non-resident Indian population is high.

Fox Star Studios, which is distributing Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, has said it stands by Johar and will lend all its support to him. The studio, which has a nine-film deal with Johar's Dharma Productions, is also the producer of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

The impasse would not have come to an end if Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had not intervened. Political sources said the Bharatiya Janata Party was not prepared to yield any ground to the MNS in the run-up to the Brihan Mumbai Mahanagar (BMC) polls. It was Johar's meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh a few days ago that cleared the decks for Fadnavis to intervene.