Vishesh Bhatt on clash between Emraan Hashmi’s Awarapan 2 and Sunny Deol’s Batwara 1947: ‘I was afraid…’

Two films. One release date. And a filmmaker who says he never intended to make it a clash.

As Awarapan 2 and Batwara 1947 hit theatres on the same day during the Independence Day holiday period, filmmaker Vishesh Bhatt has explained how the two films ended up sharing the release window — and why he eventually agreed to it.

Speaking to ANI, Bhatt said Awarapan 2 was originally expected to arrive earlier. But everything changed when actor Emraan Hashmi was injured during the shoot in December, forcing the team to put production on hold.

“We didn’t plan it as a clash,” Bhatt said. The delay had a domino effect. One injury. Then the entire release calendar shifted.

Bhatt said the team had initially been looking at an April release. But as the shoot was pushed back, the theatrical calendar began moving too. “During December, Emraan got injured during the shooting, so we had to hold back the shoot,” he said.

By the time the team began looking for another release date, several other films had also started moving around. Bhatt said the changing calendar was further affected by the war, with films such as Yash-starrer Toxic and others shifting their schedules. “The entire calendar was shifting,” he said.

So where did that leave Awarapan 2?

Eventually, the team found a date in the Independence Day holiday window. There was just one problem: Sunny Deol’s Batwara 1947, produced by Aamir Khan, was already scheduled for the same day.

Could two films actually survive the same Friday?

According to Bhatt, distributors did not necessarily see the overlap as a problem. The reason? The two films belonged to different categories, and the holiday period was expected to give both enough room to attract audiences.

“There is enough capacity for films to do well during holiday windows,” Bhatt said, pointing to the example of Gadar and Lagaan, which released around the same period in the 2000s and both went on to perform strongly. Hollywood releases were also part of the crowded calendar, Bhatt said.

The distribution side ultimately told the Awarapan 2 team that Batwara 1947 was coming on the same date but felt the two films could coexist. The distributors and cinema owners backed the date.

Bhatt still wasn't completely convinced. It wasn't the clash. It was the memory of Awarapan. His hesitation came from somewhere else. The original Awarapan, released in 2007, had left him with a very different memory of sharing the spotlight.

Bhatt recalled how the film had to compete with other releases for audience attention, leaving the team desperate to make sure people even noticed it. “When Awarapan came with two other films, we tried very hard to get noticed and get registered with the audience,” he said.

The promotional push became so intense that the team even got Emraan Hashmi — an actor known for not being a dancer — to dance at the IIFA Awards.

Why? Because, Bhatt said, they simply wanted people to notice the film. That experience stayed with him.

The filmmaker admitted that the memory created what he described as a kind of trauma. “We came from a time when nobody noticed us,” Bhatt said. And with Awarapan 2 now facing another crowded release window, the fear returned. “I was going to make Awarapan again. I was afraid that nobody would notice our film again.”

But this time, he said, the people around the film kept giving him the same reassurance: the market had enough capacity. Distributors believed the holiday period could accommodate both films. Cinema owners agreed. Eventually, Bhatt did too. “I said okay,” he said.

And so the sequel to the 2007 cult film arrived in theatres alongside Batwara 1947.

Emraan Hashmi returns as Shivam Pandit in Awarapan 2. For Bhatt, however, the bigger story isn't about a box-office clash. It is about making sure that, this time, Awarapan doesn't go unnoticed.

(With inputs from ANI)