Putting an end to all speculation, the makers of Mental have decided that the Salman Khan starrer, produced by brother Sohail, will hit screens on November 22. With two schedules under his belt, Sohail, who was all this while only interested in getting the film going, reportedly sat down with Salman and the team to finalise the release date. While Salman's fans have reason to smile, the news may have given one man the heebie-jeebies.
Ever since he came to know of the decision, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, whose Ram Leela is releasing on November 29, has been having sleepless nights... and not without reason... Earlier too, the filmmaker has had his fingers burnt when his movie Saawariya, which marked Ranbir Kapoor's debut, clashed with Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Om Shanti Om, with disastrous consequences. Fact is, Bhansali had postponed the release of Ram Leela from August to November 29 only to avoid a collision with Rohit Shetty's Chennai Express that had always been slated for an Eid release.
However, the November 22 Mental date has now posed a new problem for the director. But why should Bhansali worry about a movie hitting theatres one week before the release of his Ram Leela? "Salman's films usually run to packed houses for two weeks, and Bhansali would thus lose out on a major portion of the audience. So much so, he is now contemplating moving his film out of the November 29 slot," said the source.