It needs a large heart to do this: 'Padmaavat' helmer Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Akshay Kumar's decision to push 'Pad Man'

After Supreme Court's verdict to lift the ban imposed by four states on Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Padmaavat, Akshay Kumar's decision to push the release of his upcoming film Pad Man came as a major relief to the filmmaker. Earlier, both Pad Man and Padmaavat were to clash at the box office on January 25 but now, Pad Man will release on February 9, along with Neeraj Pandey's Aiyaary. 

On Friday, Akshay called for a press conference at his Juhu residence to make the official announcement about the release date of Pad Man being pushed to February 9. He was also joined by Padmaavat helmer Sanjay Leela Bhansali who expressed how grateful he is to Akshay for this kind gesture.

Talking about the same, Bhansali told the media, "Padmaavat has faced a lot of problems. Akshay Kumar's Pad Man was to come on the same date. We requested Akshay to push the release date. His film is also big but he agreed in two minutes. He said, 'I'm with you'. It needs a large heart to do this. I will be grateful to him for lifetime. The film fraternity will be proud of Akshay."

DNA After Hrs was the first to report that Bhansali dropped by to have a word with Akshay while he was rehearsing for his performance at an upcoming awards function. During the press interaction, Akshay confirmed the same saying, "My film was going to come out on January 25 and Padmaavat was going to come out at the same time. I met Sanjay Leela Bhansali at a dance rehearsal and he requested me to push the release date."

Akshay added, "We all are here as one family. I want his film to come solo and I wish him luck. He has gone through a lot."

When Akshay was quizzed why Padmaavat's release date was retained as January 25 and not Pad Man's and why couldn't Padmaavat choose another date to hit the theatres, Akshay shared, "They have a reason to release the movie this time. It is really essential for the makers of Padmaavat to release the film as early as possible. We (Both Padmaavat and Pad Man) could have easily come out on the same day. We have about 4000-5000 theatres all over the country and we could have easily shared them. But at the moment, the stakes of their film is much higher than mine. So, he asked me to do it and I did it." 

Akshay also mentioned that he and SLB have worked together on a lot of films and that Bhansali is a very dear friend of his. So he decided to come with his movie at a later date. 

Meanwhile, Bhansali remained tight lipped on questions related to the SC decision of uplifting the ban on the film which was levied by the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. He also chose not to answer any questions related to the protests by the Karni Sena. 

Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor starrer Padmaavat was earlier slated to release on December 1, 2017 but it had to be deferred following the controversies it got entangled in after various fringe groups like Rajput Karni sena started protesting against its release. Their main objection is on the content of the film, which they believe is hurtful to their sentiments. They feel the film Padmaavat distorts history and portrays their community in a bad light.