A source familiar with the matter revealed, “Kumar Mangat’s ‘Aakrosh’ and Sohail Maklai’s Knockout were both slated to be released on October 1, 2010.

However, since both Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn are very close friends, the release date of Knockout has now been shifted to either October 8 or 15.”

The source went on to add that not just Sanjay but ‘Knockout’ producer Sohail Maklai too have become Ajay’s pal and he too wanted to avoid the clash of both movies on the box office on the very same day.

Sohail confirms the development
Sanjay and Ajay were unavailable for the comment on this story but when Sohail was contacted, he confirmed the news.

“Yes it is true. We all mutually decided to shift Knockout by a week or two. I called Sanju in South Africa and he took Ajay on the conference and we decided that there is no point in clashing the two films.”

He added that the release of both films on same day would have hampered “each other’s business.”

“My director Mani Shankar is in Mumbai finalizing the edit. We have enough time to change the date and plan our promotions accordingly,” said Sohail.

Sanjay to rescue again
Sanjay has not just re-scheduled release date of his film for buddy Ajay but recently also stepped in as a producer of film ‘Khote Sikkey’ which initially was being produced by his former good buddy Sanjay Gupta.

Reportedly, Dutt and Gupta had a major tiff and Gupta decided not to be part of the Sanjay Dutt starrer film.

After this, film’s director Soham Shah was worried about his film’s fate though, he did not have to worry for long as Dutt decided to come to rescue by deciding not just to star in the film but also to produce it.