Ajay Devgan fears taking on Akshay Kumar

The producer of the Ajay Devgan starrer Halla Bol, Abdol Samee Siddiqui, and director Raj Kumar Santoshi are upset with rumours that the movie was postponed from December 21 to January 11 as the film wasn"t getting sold. In a frank chat, both clear the air.

Selling price

Santoshi is in Los Angeles busy with pre-production work of Asoka. Refuting rumours, he says angrily, “It"s absolutely not true.

I really don"t know who is spreading these rumours. Halla Bol has been sold at a very good price. In fact, Sudhir from Pyramid Saimira told me last week that the offer for the Bihar territory was more than Om Shanti Om."

Siddiqui adds, “Halla Bol was already sold to Pyramid Saimira a month ago at a fabulous price."
So why was Halla Bol postponed? Says Santoshi, “We decided to postpone the film as three films releasing on the same day (December 21) would harm everyone"s business."

Siddiqui adds, “The decision to postpone was taken jointly taken by Ajay Devgan, the producers, distributor and Raj Kumar Santoshi."

Joint decision

He adds, “It wasn"t because Ajay didn"t want to clash with Akshay Kumar or anything else! Halla Bol is a very different commercial film so we needed to promote it in a different way. Our marketing strategy is the only reason."

There have been reports that Halla Bol is based on the Aamir Khan-Narendra Modi clash. Both Santoshi and Siddiqui deny the rumour. Santoshi says, “The question of Halla Bol being based around the Narmada Bachao Andolan clash doesn"t arise as we shot the film much earlier.

Ajay plays a superstar but he"s not based on any real-life character. There are vested interests that are trying to harm Halla Bol. I don"t know who it is yet, but once I"m back I will definitely find out."