Sources say that the ace director-producer was well aware of the fact that Akki-Katrina pair had given several successful films like ‘Welcome’, ‘Singh Is Kinng’, ‘Namaste London’ and never flopped at the box office.

Keeping in mind the history of Katrina Kaif-Akshay Kumar starrer flicks at the box office, Karan Johar advised director Rensil D’silva of ‘Kurbaan’ to avoid the clash, and release the film one week earlier. As November 20 slot had no other release, it was easy for Karan Johar to arrange theatres for that day on a short notice.

Another theory doing the rounds revolves around Katrina Kaif being the lucky charm for Akshay Kumar. The grapevine has it that Karan Johar’s attention was drawn to the fact that whenever Katrina was present in a film (even in a guest appearance) with Akki, the film worked at the box office and the rival movie suffered.

The latest example of this was Salman Khan’s ‘Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna’, which bombed at the box office due to competition from Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif (in sp appearance) mega budget flick ‘Blue.’

Though Karan Johar is not a superstitious person, but ‘Kurbaan’ being a big budget flick, he decided to go by the popular belief and advanced the date of release of Kareena-Saif starrer film.

‘Kurbaan’ has Saif Ali Khan playing a terrorist, while Kareena Kapoor plays his love interest. The movie has been set in post- bombing New York, and tries to realistically portray the effect of those bombings on Muslims living in that great country of the USA.

There is buzz that Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan have shot some of the hottest love sequences for the film. Even they have kissed for the longest time in this flick. The buzz is that they wanted to prove to the world that their pairing was not a flop, as had been assumed after the dismal showing of Yashraj Films’ ‘Tashan’ at the box office.