There were speculations online about there being similarities between the YRF thriller and the 1996 American movie when the trailer of SRK's movie first came out. While Shah Rukh's movie is about a Bollywood superstar and his lookalike obsessed fan, "The Fan" follows the story of a guy, who stalks his favourite Basketball player.
Shah Rukh said he was the one who told director Maneesh Sharma to watch "The Fan" as a reference while they were working on the movie. "It (The Fan) is an extremely different film. I saw the film when I was young. In fact, I saw another film too and read some books... As a matter of fact, I told Maneesh we should watch it just as a reference. But there is no similarity. It doesn't come close to our film," Shah Rukh told reporters here while promoting the movie.
Maneesh said that people might find the trailer of "Fan" and the Hollywood movie similar but their thinking will change after watching the film. He blamed the speculation to a perception about him that he only makes remakes of Hollywood films.
"There are similarities and I don't want to sound defensive. Title is already similar so people can think like that. But with my every film, people think I am only making remakes. When 'Band Baja Baarat' was coming, people thought I was remaking 'Wedding Planners', during 'Shuddh Desi Romance', they said it is 'No Strings Attached' remake.
"So, I think people just pick on one thing and think like that... The film will speak for itself. Apart from the title, there is no similarity. There is no double role in Robert De Niro's film. Once people watch our film they will know," he said.