Karan Johar's directorial venture "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" and Ajay Devgn's "Shivaay" are set to clash at the box office on Oct. 28, but even before the films hit the theatres, the collision has turned into an ugly controversy.

In a shocking audio clip that has surfaced now, actor-writer Kamaal R Khan is heard talking about being paid Rs. 25 lakh by Karan to praise the "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" teaser, which was released recently, and bad-mouth the trailer of "Shivaay."

Ajay himself has shared the audio clip on his Twitter handle, and captioned it saying, "Hear what self proclaimed no. 1 critic and trade analyst Kamaal R Khan has to say." In the phone conversation between Kumar Mangat Pathak, who is a film producer and Ajay's business associate, and KRK, the former is heard questioning KRK as to why he had bad-mouthed Ajay's film on his Twitter handle and strongly asked Ajay to avoid the clash with Karan's film. To this, Khan revealed that he has been paid by the Dharma head honcho to promote "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" and talk ill about "Shivaay."

While it is not known if "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" or "Shivaay" or both will make it big at the box office, this confession will surely take the industry by storm.

Meanwhile, KRK, in a series of tweets, has denied the fact that Karan has paid him or that the Dharma boss asked him to bash "Shivaay."

Check out KRK's recent tweets:

In other news, fans of Ajay had also recently alleged that Karan had paid some Twitter handles, which have a large number of followers, to trend the trailer of "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil," which stars Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Anushka Sharma and Fawad Khan in lead roles, and shun "Shivaay." Supporters of "Shivaay" then started another trend on Twitter as "Dirty game by Karan Johar."