Padmaavat Director Bhansali Looked So Shaken: Balki On Postponing PadMan

New Delhi: Director R Balki, whose PadMan was initially scheduled for January 25 release, said that he postponed the film for two weeks because his 'heart reached out to' Padmaavat director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, reports news agency IANS. "Sanjay Leela Bhansali looked so shaken and troubled. My heart reached out to him. Isn't it about time we in the film industry stopped projecting an impression of a house divided? At the end of the day, all of us filmmakers belong to same fraternity," IANS quoted Balki as saying. The Cheeni Kum director also said that the decision was to shift PadMan's release date to February 9 was 'taken instantaneously' by the team.

"It was a decision taken almost instantaneously by all of us in the Pad Man team when Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Viacom 18, the producers of 'Padmaavat', approached us with the request that we move. It didn't take us a minute to agree to their request. It's the least we could do for a project that has gone through so much. Padmaavat needs the Republic Day slot more than us. We don't mind moving ahead by two weeks because we know whenever we come, we have a winning project on hand," R Balki told IANS.

"Of course, we have to be selfish about our own film. But not at the expense of someone else's film. We can't say, 'Usski film gayi bhaad mein (to hell with their film)". Because if someone else's film gets into trouble, we must remind ourself that the trouble could befall our film also," he added. "Padmaavat was destined come solo. I hope it stands tall and I wish it glorious success," he told IANS.



PadMan is based on the life of entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham, who invented a low-cost sanitary napkin making machine. The film also stars Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte and it is produced by Akshay's wife Twinkle Khanna.

Padmaavat, with Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh as three protagonists, will open in theatres tomorrow.

(With inputs from IANS)