Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; October 24, 2014)

The festival of lights has put a damper on the promotions of Anubhav Sinha’s Zid with exhibitors deciding to put up the film’s posters only after Diwali celebrations come to an end. A source close to the production team says, “The film is about to release next month and it is necessary for us to start the promotions. We released the first standee featuring lead pair, Barbie Handa and Karanvir Sharma a couple of days ago, which was quite bold.”

It is said that the second standee of the film, too, is also pretty risqué, compelling exhibitors to hold it back for a few days. “They said during the festive season, a lot of families come to watch films and it wouldn’t be appropriate to put up explicit posters. They conveyed this decision to the makers, who apparently agreed to it. So, the new posters will be out only after Diwali,” said another source.

Exhibitor Inder Raj Kapoor confirmed the news. “Some publicity material has been returned because we found it bold and feared it could be controversial. We have spoken to the producers about it,” he said.

Anubhav Sinha, co-producer of Zid, said his team was trying to draw up a strategy so that the bold content of the film did not affect the promotions. “By Monday, we will take a decision whether to go ahead with the same publicity material or not,” added Sinha.