12 years ago, Bollywood witnessed one of its most talked-about Diwali clashes at the box office with the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya and Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om on November 9, 2007. It was a battle of the newcomers as Ranbir Kapoor made his grand debut in Saawariya, while Deepika Padukone entered the industry with a bang in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Om Shanti Om. However, destiny had different plans. Despite the hype, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya couldn’t stand the heat and fizzled out at the box office, while Om Shanti Om emerged as a raging hit.
Recently, an old interview with director Farah Khan surfaced, stirring up gossip. Farah hinted that had it not been for Saawariya, Om Shanti Om could have potentially smashed the Rs 100 crore mark, becoming the first film to achieve such a milestone.
Speaking to Film Companion, Farah Khan had said, “I feel so bad, if they had not released with us, we would have been the first movie in the history of Bollywood to earn Rs 100 crore We stopped short at Rs 83 crore or something and it was a record that we set 10 years back."
She added, “Everybody wanted to come on the same date. And it’s always an ego problem. You live and learn.
That was the first time my movie was clashing with somebody, and Shah Rukh Khan was very gungho and Sanjay was also very gungho. It just became really bad."
Farah Khan on clash of OSO with Sawaariya and how if the clash didn’t happen, OSO would have been the first Bollywood movie to make 100 crores. by u/SugarfreeJalebi in BollyBlindsNGossip
On Reddit, it has opened a whole new conversation. One user wrote, “I still remember this highly anticipated clash. Me and my slb fan mother thought that swaraiya would absolutely destroy OSO because the music and clips from Sawariya were looking much better than that from OSO. We were really surprised when Sawariya bombed." Another wrote, “Even if it had missed 100 crs, OSA would definitely had become an All Time Grosser which it missed due to the clash."
