Exclusive: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati will release on time, vows team

Now that the crisis generated by the premature protests has blown over, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati is well on its way to resolve issues around the movie completely. The film’s shoot is on track and SLB will stick to its release date of November 17, 2017.

Sources close to the project have revealed that the film’s producers, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures have decided to go along with creative decisions taken by the director.

At an emergency meeting, the filmmaker’s three principal stars, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor, and Deepika Padukone, have pledged to extend all their cooperation to ensure that the movie is released on time.

Says a source close to the development, “Ranveer and Shahid haven’t committed to any other project until Padmavati’s completion. Only Deepika has other commitments, but she knows the importance of Padmavati for her career.”

“Viacom has full faith in SLB. Padmavati is the costliest Indian film to be produced. The losses suffered by the disruption of shooting in Jaipur will be absorbed easily into the budget. Viacom now waits for SLB to take a call on the new location for the movie. Then it’s full steam ahead,” the source adds.

Drawing parallels with delays involving Bhansali’s older movies, the source says, “Let’s not forget even Bajirao Mastani was delayed when Ranveer injured himself during a battle sequence in Jaipur. The movie managed to be released on time.”