Following recent Twitter spat, Kiccha Sudeep and Ajay Devgn now gear up for a box office clash in July

In a rather bizarre turn of events, superstars Ajay Devgn and Kiccha Sudeep have become quite the fodder for tabloid media. The two seasoned actors recently got involved in an online debate over Hindi being the bonafide national language. Although the internet stood divided on the matter, Devgn's pro-Hindi stance on the matter provoked the ire of many bigwigs of Karnataka politics and the issue remained fueled for many days to follow.

And now, to make things more interesting, both Sudeep and Ajay Devgn will be pit against one another at the box office with the latter's film 'Thank God' releasing theatrically on July 29th, a day after the release of the pan-India film 'Vikrant Rona'. 

Ajay Devgn had taken to social media several weeks ago to announce the release date of 'Thank God' which has been directed by Indra Kumar and also stars Sidharth Malhotra and Rakul Preet Singh. 'Vikrant Rona', on the other hand, comes as the latest pan-India offering from the Kannada film industry, and with Sudeep being a noted actor among the Hindi film audience, the film can be expected to have reasonable clout at the time of its release. The recent Twitter spat between the two, however, changes the context a little and one would reckon that a potential box office clash is on the cards. 

For those uninitiated, the current row between Sudeep and Ajay Devgn began when the former claimed that Hindi isn't the national language and that regional languages are steadily gaining prominence, thanks to the recent pan-Indian successes such as RRR and KGF: Chapter 2. This led to Ajay Devgn directing a tweet at Sudeep to proclaim in turn that Hindi, quite indeed, has been the national language of the country and will continue to be so. With two celebrated actors indulging in a back-and-forth of sorts, social media then stood as a platform for the sensitive debate over the topic of the national language. Many prominent Karnataka politicians such as H.D. Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah, D.K. Shiva Kumar, and others lashed out at the Bollywood actor for his remarks.

'Vikrant Rona' has been directed by Anup Bhandari and stars Sudeep in the titular role, with Nirup Bhandari and Neetha Ashok playing pivotal roles in the film; Jacqueline Fernandez will be seen making a special appearance as Gadang Rakkamma. William David is the cinematographer with Shiva Kumar serving as the art director. The film will be releasing worldwide on July 28th in over ten languages.