Kaabil's Sara Zamaana vs #SRKkaDeewanaZamaana

The Raees-versus-Kaabil battle began the moment Shah Rukh Khan decided to shift the release date of his film to coincide with Rakesh Roshan’s Kaabil.

The latter had announced 26 January 2017 as the date for releasing his film and refused Khan's requests to postpone Kaabil. Later Roshan decided to release his film on the evening of 25 January, only to have Khan follow suit.

Critics haven’t warmed to Kaabil’s trailer which has received over 20 million views since its launch on 25 October. On the other hand, the Raees trailer has got over 24 million views since it was launched on 6 December.

After launching their first track Kaabil Hoon, the makers of Kaabil gave a teaser of the remake of the Sara Zamana Haseeno Ka Deewana track, which was composed by Rakesh Roshan’s brother Rajesh for Yaarana (1981). Thirty-five years later, Rajesh Roshan will reprise the popular number with the seductive Urvashi Rautela dancing to the new version. The teaser evoked a great response from Rautela fans.

Soon after, the hashtag SRKkaDeewanaZamaana began trending, triggering a Twitter war between fans of Kaabil and Raees. We can only speculate that the social media marketing team of Raees was the brain behind this.

For the record, Shah Rukh Khan had starred in the 1995 romantic drama Zamaana Deewana, directed by Ramesh Sippy, which proved to be a dud at the box office.

As soon as #SRKkaDeewanaZamaana started trending, it evoked different responses from fans of Raees and Kaabil. With Khan being the bigger star, his fans started slamming Kaabil director Sanjay Gupta.

There was at least one Kaabil fan who slammed Khan for playing dirty.

Now, Hrithik Roshan and Urvashi Rautela must be hoping that their Haseeno Ka Deewana track gets the necessary eyeballs.

Both Kaabil and Raees are slated to be released on 25 January 2017.