Contrary to Raj Thackeray’s announcement after meeting with Karan Johar, Mukesh Bhatt and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, that he had made three demands one of them being a contribution of Rs 5 crore to the Army fund, Mukesh Bhatt, President of the Film Producers’ Guild, said that the understanding arrived at was “not conditional  and there was no compulsion involved.

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“There were no pre-conditions. It is all a fabrication being circulated by some satellite channels. Karan Johar himself decided to give a cheque to the Defence Ministry for the martyrs and it was a voluntary gesture. He is doing so because of his sentiment and respect towards the families of the martyrs and he would be giving it to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar,” Bhatt revealed, adding that the film would be released all over including single screen theatres, who had earlier called for a boycott on the film.

However the President of the COEAI (Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India), Nitin Datar, denied that they had changed their stance on the release of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, “We firmly stand by our earlier decision. We want to clarify rumours doing the rounds that single screens have called off their decision not to screen the film. The stand which we had taken was not out of fear about the MNS. We had done so keeping the public sentiment in mind and in view of the fact that Pak film industry had banned all our films. Besides the Government authorities or production sector did not even think it fit to call the association.”