Bollywood star Akshay Kumar on Friday announced that he has decided to delay the release of his movie Pad Man, thereby giving Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat a clear window to hit the screens on January 25 after a prolonged struggle.
Pad Man will now release on February 9 in India. Bollywood films usually release a day earlier in the UAE.
“I was rehearsing for Filmfare Awards, and Bhansali sir came there and said I have done a lot of films with him, and if I can move my film. See, we are one family and I can understand he has gone through a lot, he has put a lot of money, the studio people have put a lot of money,” Kumar said. “I would want Padmaavat to release solo and would like to wish him luck.”
He addressed a joint press conference with Bhansali at his residence.
Bhansali said he was grateful to Kumar for the gesture.
“Sanjay is a very personal dear friend of mine... He asked for it, so I went for it,” Kumar said.
Asked why Pad Man had to shift and not Padmaavat, Kumar said: “They have a reason to release it this time. It is very essential for them to release it as quickly as possible. So I understand that.
“That could have happened too. But the point is not about fighting or clashing. We both (the films) can easily come on this date because the business will still happen... There are around 5,000 theatres and we both can share it, but at the moment, the stake of their film is much more higher than mine.”
Padmaavat, based on an epic poem about a 14th-century queen, has been delayed by protests and controversies. Kumar’s Pad Man is about a social entrepreneur and activist Arunachalam Muruganantham, who revolutionised sanitary hygiene in rural India 20 years ago by inventing a machine to make low-cost sanitary pads.
