The two big budget epic films, Mani Ratnam's ‘Ravana' and Prakash Jha's ‘Rajneeti', which are based on the Ramayana and Mahabharata respectively will be releasing around the same time.

But while both films were scheduled to release in February 2010, the multiplex owners strike and a few other issues have pushed the release date onto May 2010.

Both films are modern versions of mythological stories. ‘Ravana' will have Aishwarya play Sita. ‘Rajneeti' will have show Katrina in a never-before-seen avatar.

The films are alike in more than one aspect. Both have already had controversies -Nana Patekar walked out of ‘Rajneeti' a little before the end of the shooting and Bipasha Basu was asked to leave ‘Ravana' before the shoot.

They have also had their share of disasters. Ravana's sets saw a flood while Rajneeti's sets saw Manoj Bajpai's accident. And now, the movies will be releasing in the same fortnight as each other. Audiences are eager to see the fate of these two at the box-office.