Pratik Gandhi's Bollywood debut Bhavai pushed; film to now release on 22 October

Musical drama Bhavai, featuring Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story star Pratik Gandhi, will now be released theatrically on 22 October Directed by Hardik Gajjar and backed by Pen Studios, the film was earlier set to open in cinemas on 1 October. The decision to reshuffle the release came days after the Maharashtra government allowed the reopening of cinema halls from 22 October. “Team Bhavai thanks the Government of Maharashtra for reopening theatres. Bhavai to release on 22nd October,” the makers said in a statement.

Keeping that and all the love we have received so far in mind, we have decided to postpone the release of our film ‘Bhavai’ to 22nd October 2021, owing to the recent and much-awaited declaration by the Maharashtra Government regarding the re-opening of theatres.

— Pen Movies (@PenMovies) September 27, 2021

The film, about the popular folk theatre form from Gujarat, was earlier titled “Raavan Leela (Bhavai)”. Last week, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) issued a show-cause notice to the makers for flouting certification rules and tampering with the content of the film. After the trailer of the film was released, the makers made two modifications – changed the title of the movie to simply Bhavai and removed a sequence showing two theatre actors, playing the roles of Ram (Ankur Vikal) and Raavan (Gandhi), in an off-stage conversation with each other after it was criticised by a section of audience for being allegedly offensive. According to the CBFC, the makers changed the title in the trailer and also included portions “deposited” with the film body. Bhavai also stars Aindrita Ray, Rajendra Gupta, Rajesh Sharma, and Abhimanyu Singh in pivotal roles.