New Delhi

It seems, Shah Rukh Khan is now paying for his ‘intolerance’ remark, and a lesson has been learnt by film industry from what happened to Dilwale.

Premier news agency PTI reports, Director Rohit Shetty feels the initial ‘ban’ on his latest film “Dilwale”, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in the lead, has affected the opening collection of the action-comedy.

The 41-year-old director told PTI that he was always prepared for the face off with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Bajirao Mastani”.

“We all were aware that ‘Dilwale’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ are coming together, so, I was prepared for that competition and the harm we will give each other. But I think what affected the Friday and Saturday collections were ‘the ban’ in Rajasthan and MP.

“Almost 40 per cent of the theaters were not showing the film and we resumed on Sunday morning… It’s all mathematics, how many theaters we are running in we will get the collections according to that,” Rohit told PTI.

The “Chennai Express” helmer thinks ‘bans’ are the outcome of “misunderstanding” and if dealt with patience things can be settled out easily.

“Bans do harm the business, but when you go and talk to the people opposing the film, it all gets sorted. I have come to the conclusion that all this happens due to misunderstanding. And the issue easily gets resolved if you go and talk to them nicely,” he said.

What Rohit describes as ‘ban’ was not actually ban. No government or private group had banned the movie. There were numerous protests from number of smaller organizations however at many locations against the film. Some theaters had voluntarily canceled the shows following protests. At some places, shows were as-it-is, but there were no people. In Surat in south Gujarat for an example, the opening day occupancy across theaters was just 28%.

Apart from Shah Rukh Khan’s political remark in a TV interview painting the nation as intolerant, the other reason was lack of entertainment value in the film as per a theater owner in Ahmedabad who says rival film Bajirao Mastani is doing better while Dilwale shows post Sunday are doing below average business.

A prominent film-review writer of Mumbai based Gujarati daily on his Facebook account posted a picture of protest against Dilwale and wrote a line, “I too would like to join the protest against Dilwale after watching it.’

Visibly upset Shahrukh Khan in his interview to a Marathi regional channel yesterday said, “if you want to watch a poem, go and watch Bajirao Mastani and if you want to watch a family movie then go and watch my film Dilwale.

Worth mentioning here that Bajirao Mastani maker Eros was in 2012 at the receiving end with Ajay Devgn starrer Son of Sardaar losing out to Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jab Tak Hai Jaan in terms of screen count(number of theaters/multiplexes/shows available to screen the film). This time, Shah Rukh’s production house Red Chillies Entertainment has distributed Dilwale. This is the first film that Shah Rukh has independently released his film and hence has to compete with veteran players in the field. Eros decided to release Bajirao Mastani exactly on day Shah Rukh came with Dilwale.

Due to its past experience of Shah Rukh Khan starer films leaving negligible number of shows for others, Eros International, which released Bajrangi Bhaijaan this Eid, had apparently laid down a pre-condition before single screen theatres owners then that if they wanted to exhibit the Salman Khan-starrer, then they have to showcase Bajirao Mastani too on its release. The exhibitors filed a case against Eros which was heard in Bombay Sessions Court. The sessions court ruled in favour of exhibitors and Dilwale, and said that the theatre owners are free to screen any movie that they wish to.

– With inputs from PTI