Conspiracy Theory 101: Main Hoon Shahid Afridi, Chennai Express and the entire drama.

If you live on planet Earth then by now you surely know about the entire drama surrounding Main Hoon Shahid Afridi( which from now on  in the article will be referred to as MHSA),you know how it was to release on Eid but then four days before the release news came that it would be releasing on the 23rd  and all . In this post we  will be analysing all the happenings  surrounding the film and will also tell you what was actually going on behind the scenes. So lets go to the beginning from where it all started  which is with team MHSA making this status update :-

“We regretfully announce that the release of Main Hoon Shahid Afridi has been delayed until futher notice due to the death of a senior Pakistani film editor, Mr.Azam Khan who had been working on the post-production of MHSA.
The new release date will be annonuced soon.”

(Get someone to check your spellings team MHSA!)

This update from team MHSA is well quite confusing. It tells us that that a certain Mr Azam Khan, who was editing the film, has passed away but does not clarify whether the film is postponed due to his death or because the film was not edited.

Then came the Express Tribune article which answered this question of mine. In the article the  film’s writer Vasay Chaudhry  says

“Azam Khan, a well-known film editor who owns the post production house Xperts, passed away during the fine-tuning of MHSA. It was really sad for everyone. To troubleshoot, we had to rush abroad to continue the post-production process but unfortunately, we wouldn’t have received the final prints on time”

Okay so let me try to digest this important ( read crap) piece of information. Well I may have not made a movie myself, but I do know this as to be a fact that you surely have the complete  movie in your hands ( like literally in your hands) if nothing more than at least a week or two before the release. Its not that you find out on monday that you don’t have the prints of your film which was to release the coming friday.

Anyway taking this information to be the truth I was trying to make peace with it when Vasay had me all perplexed again when he added :-

“the tiff competition from the Shahrukh Khan-starrer is a reason for the delay; Chennai Express has the killer combination of King Khan and Rohit Shetty, a director who has never flopped at the box office.Whether you like it or not, we are not ready or willing to compete with a big budget Shahrukh Khan film”

Dude you just said that your film is not complete! If asked about the Chennai Express question you should have said that “No we have nothing to do with Chenai Express, our film was not ready.” What do you mean we cant compete and all? Everyone pretty much knew that Indian films would be releasing on Eid as they NEVER get banned in favor of Pakistani films.Let me add that the last year banning of ‘Ek Tha Tiger” was not for the protection of local cinema but because the content was apparently anti-Pakistani.

In case you are wondering how Chennai Express came to Pakistan and who was behind it here I go. Once upon a time GEO and Humayun Saeed were friends and GEO was the official partner for the film MHSA. Then for some reason Humayun went to ARY films and made them his partner. The film was all set for an Eid release now. GEO was now all pissed off and decided to bring onboard Chennai Express and release it here in Pakistan!  and that’s how  Chennai Express landed in Pakistan.

So where were we before this Chenai Express release story? Oh yes the Chennai Express factor in MHSA’s delay. I was actually pondering over the MHSA postpone while I came across this status update from actor Gauhar Rasheed, who plays a vital role in the film. It reads

“At the eleventh hour, the previous understanding between distributors and film-makers that no Indian film will be imported on Eid has suddenly been overruled. So because of this nHOON SHAHID AFRIDI has decided to postponon-professional attitude of our authorities the producers of MAI ed there film release from eid and the new date will be announced very…. Sad !!!”

Now Im like WTF is happening!
Quick recap…

Humayun Saeed (producer/actor/everything of MHSA) says ” The film is delayed because our editors dead!”
Vasay Chaudry (writer) says: ” Our film is not completely edited, plus Chennai Express is coming and we are scared as hell”
Gauhar Rasheed (actor) says : “Chennai Express is coming so we HAD to postpone our film!”

All I want to say to team MHSA is get your story straight!

If you ask me whats my take on this. I think there was never a film called MHSA and it was all a figment of our imagination. We all thought there was this film coming up and you know imagined all this…

OR

Maybe Humayun Saeed wanted to stay in the news so he shot a cool trailer and shot some kick-ass songs where he got to do all he wanted to do which is ( romance beautiful women, have item numbers picturised COMPLETELY on him, fight like Salman Khan and whatever). Maybe thats all he has and there never was a complete film!

OR

Maybe Humayun Saeed was actually never planning to release his film on Eid and was playing a master game. A game where he knew Chennai Express would be coming on Eid and wanted to get rid of his Pakistani competition. Thus he encouraged  Josh and Ishq Khuda to come along and release on Eid saying ” We Pakistani films will kick ass of all the Indian /American films” Then leaving Josh and Ishq Khuda to fight the MEGA MEGA MEGA Shahrukh Deepika starrer Chennai Express! and getting himself the 23 August date where the only Indian film releasing in Pakistan is Madras Cafe ( which will probably get banned).

Ill go with the third option 😉

Btw we asked team Ishq Khuda and Josh as to what they had to say on the Chennai Express /MHSA delay factor. Team Ishq Khuda was ready to fight Chennai Express as they had a lavish premiere for Ishq Khuda and Shehzad Rafique was absolutely confident about his product.

Iram Parveen, the director of Josh however said

“As a producer, releasing a film is a high pressure and strategic time so I am sure that a delay is not desired. However, whatever’s best for the film must be done and this was probably in their best interest for reasons only known to them entirely. We wish them good luck.”

We at team Galaxy Lollywood wish Josh and Ishq Khuda all the very best of luck and urge all our readers to be Pakistani and support Pakistani content !