Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan face-off on Eid 2018

Mumbai: Ex-lovers Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will have a face-off next year. In the interesting turn of events, former lovers Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Salman Khan are all set to clash at the box office for the first time ever. Post their much-talked about break-up, the 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' actors has never crossed each other's path.

Salman like every year, had pre-booked Eid 2018 for his next action thriller film, Race 3. Latest buzz suggests makers of Aishwarya’s film Fanney Khan, co-starring Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao too has now finalised upon the same festive day as their release date.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted, “It’s official... #FanneyKhan confirmed for Eid 2018... Stars Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Rajkummar Rao.”

A Mid-Day report quoted a source as saying, “It will be an exciting clash, since Aishwarya and Salman’s relationship continues to hold the audience’s attention, even years after it went kaput. While Salman boasts of tremendous box-office pull, Ash and Anil too have a huge fan following and will draw the audience to the theatres.”

The source adds that producers of Fanney Khan consulted with Aishwarya and Anil Kapoor before zeroing in on the release date, and the two were more than happy to have a festive release. "Arjun N Kapoor, Prernaa Arora, Bhushan Kumar and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra met Aishwarya and Anil, who were happy to have a festival release. The team is aware of Race 3 also releasing on Eid, but they are confident of their film."

Producers Arjun N Kapoor, Prernaa Arora and Bhushan Kumar released a joint statement saying, “We have locked the release date of Fanney Khan on Eid 2018 (June 15). We decided on Eid because the lead character Fanney Khan, played by Anil Kapoor, is a Muslim character and there’s no better day than Eid (to release it).”

With Fanney Khan Aishwarya will reunite with her ‘Taal’ co-star Anil Kapoor, while it will be the first time for Rajkummar Rao with these glamorous actors.

On the other hand, Salman's Race 3 is a multi starrer film. Helmed by Remo D’Souza, it has Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah and Saqib Saleem.

The shoot of Race 3 has begun and the ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ actor introduced the star cast on social media in his recent post:

The 'race' between the two movies would be interesting to see.