Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; February 11, 2015)

While Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan is definitely coming as an Eid offering in July, Shah Rukh Khan’s Fan, originally scheduled for an August 14, release has been pushed ahead.

SRK’s film has been postponed because of the heavy post-production work. Keitan Yadav, Red Chillies VFX COO reveals, “We’re trying to attempt something really different and new with Fan.” And that has put a temporary pause on the film as an insider reveals, “The film has still around 10 days shooting left before Shah Rukh moves on to his other projects. The post-production work will take longer, hence the decision.”

Karan Johar’s Brothers, starring Akshay Kumar, Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez, will take its release date. SRK vacating the holiday spot has benefitted Akki’s film. Brothers was supposed to come two weeks after Bajrangi Bhaijaan on July 31, which was a usual Friday but with Fan postponed, they now have a holiday release which will definitely boost its collections.

While SRK, producer Aditya Chopra and director Maneesh Sharma have been in discussions, it seems they have almost locked in on a new date: Bakri-Eid (September 23), our source insists, “The other holidays or festival release dates are already booked by other stars. None of the other holiday dates were free — be it Eid, Diwali, Gandhi Jayanti or Christmas. It was only Bakri-Eid which gave Fan a window for a proper holiday release. Else, the team would have had to shift the film to 2016 — something SRK did not want.”

The film will also gain from the long opening weekend. “Bakri-Eid falls on a Wednesday. This means, Fan will have a five-day opening weekend, adding to its performance at the BO,” the source adds.