Is Salman Khan's Sultan a threat to Aamir Khan's Dangal?

Salman Khan and Aamir Khan have been buddies for the longest time. While each of them has showed support to each other's films always, this time, both the actors are stuck in a sticky situation of sorts. One of Salman's upcoming releases- YRF's Sultan and Aamir's next-Dangal share a similar story. Given that Sultan's hitting screens next year Eid, and Aamir's film is coming only at the fag end of 2016 during Christmas, will Salman steal Aamir's thunder?

Here's a lowdown on the happenings...

SAME PINCH!
Right after PK, Aamir started prepping up rigorously for his next film, Dangal where he plays a wrestler. He will be sporting two distinct looks in the film- one of a 18 year old and the other of a 50 year old father of two. Loosely inspired from famous pahelwan Mahavir Phogat's life, Aamir's film will have a lot of wrestling and kushti. Having a similar undertone will be YRF's Sultan which will have Salman essaying the role of a 40 year old boxer. The production house has already unveiled the first look teaser, giving away the core theme of the film, introducing Salman as Haryana's tiger Sultan Ali Khan. The teaser has already created a mad frenzy among fans.

HEROINE KA CHAKKAR!
Both Dangal and Sultan have been in the pipeline for the past one year. While Nitesh Tiwary has already finalised the main star cast of the film, including Aamir's daughters for the film who are now undergoing training for the film, Ali Abbas Zafar and YRF are yet to make an announcement about Sultan's leading lady. Kangana Ranaut was approached for the same but she copped out, owing to her other commitments. Parineeti Chopra's name too had been doing the rounds but as of now, nothing's been finalised yet. Having announced the date already, will YRF reveal the leading lady's name soon too?

SHOOT KAB HOGA?
Nitesh is all set to begin shooting for Dangal this September and Aamir, too has made sure he gives the film its much needed time. Aamir has already piled up as much as 22 kilos for the film and is now weighing 90 kilos. Aamir will start off with the second half, where he plays the 50 year old father, complete the scenes post interval and then, he will take a break to shed those excess kilos and get back in shape to portray the 18 year old look for the first half. He has kept almost two years free for the film, and committed to its prep up, shooting and post production work. He has decided not to sign anything else until Dangal hits theatres next year December. Salman, on the other hand, is now busy promoting Bajrangi Bhaijaan and post that, our Dabangg Khan will be wrapping up Sooraj Barjatya's Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. The family drama releases this Diwali and Salman will start shooting for Sultan only in November, after PRDP releases.

DATE DILEMMA!
The biggest problem are the release dates. Aamir had announced and started prepping up for the film, one year in advance almost and has plans to release Dangal on his favourite Christmas week in 2016. But Salman's put the nail in the coffin by announcing that his film- also based on almost the same concept- will hit theatres much before Dangal, on Eid 2016! Now, the repercussions of this are expected to be huge. Why? The audiences will already be saturated watching their favourite Sallu miyaan play a wrestler on screen much before they can see Aamir do the same on celluloid. Will that take away from Dangal's USP- it's uniqueness? The audiences will already get to watch a wrestling film right in the middle of the year and given that Dangal comes only later next year, the similarity in the plot and theme might prove detrimental for the makers.

KYA KIYA JAAYE?
Aamir and Salman are possibly closest friends in the industry. Aamir had definitely called Dangalas one of his 'toughest and most unique roles ever'. But with Sultan releasing before Dangal, the novelty will somewhere be lost. Now, there can be two possibilities. Either the plot of both the films, despite revolving around the same theme, will be diametrically different from each other. That way, both films have a fair chance of ruling the box office roost. Or, one of the actors can postpone their film, giving the audiences the time to be able to accept another film on similar lines!