Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; August 12, 2014)

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s biopic on Mary Kom was initially supposed to release on October 2, thus cashing in on a long holiday weekend. But since Shahid Kapoor-starrer, Haider, and Hrithik Roshan-starrer, Bang Bang, were slated to release on the same day, Bhansali chose to move the film’s release date to September 5.

A source says, “ Yash Raj Films is known to announce their release dates in advance. They had earlier declared September 5 as the release date for their film, Daawat-E-Ishq. But now that Mary Kom is releasing on the same date, YRF is not happy. They apparently wants their film to have a solo release. A few days ago, they apparently requested Bhansali to shift his film’s release date.” But Bhansali apparently turned down YRF’s request.

Says the source, “The makers of Mary Kom have changed their release date once, so they were not to keen to change it again. They have already started working on the film’s publicity; changing the release date would’ve disturbed a lot of things. Now Yash Raj has decided to postponse their film’s release by two weeks; the Parineeti Chopra and Aditya Roy Kapur- starrer will release on September 19.”

Bhansali and YRF’s spokesperson were unavailable for comment.