With Padmavat releasing on 25 January, will Anushka Sharma's Pari and Sushant Singh Rajput's Drive now clash?

The new year surprises for Bollywood began with the much-awaited and controversial Sanjay Leela Bhansali magnus opus Padmavati (now rechristened as Padmavat) announcing its release date as 25 January. The date was initially slated for a solo release for Akshay Kumar’s Padman, after Neeraj Pandey postponed the release date of his film Aiyaary — which was initially set to lock horns with Padman — to 9 February. [caption id=“attachment_4297859” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Mahurat shot of Drive with Sushant Singh Rajput and Jacqueline Fernandez (left); poster of Anushka Sharma’s Pari (right). Facebook[/caption] Anushka Sharma’s paranormal thriller Pari — which was earlier slated for a 9 February  release — pushed its release date to Holi week (2 March). By doing so, now it will clash with Sushant Singh Rajput-Jacqueline Fernandez starrer _Drive_ at the box-office. While the most logical explanation for this clash seems to be the release of Padmavat, a report by Zoom states that the shift of dates happened due to a reported spat between Sushant Singh Rajput and producer Prernaa Arora. The Zoom report says that Rajput, who was recently busy shooting for Abhishek Kapoor’s Kedarnath, that also is the debut film of Sara Ali Khan, had some creative differences with the film’s producer Prernaa Arora of KriArj Entertainment. Both the actor and the producer were unavailable for any inputs regarding this reported feud. Pari is co-produced by Arora’s KriArj Entertainment and Anushka Sharma-Karnesh Sharma’s Clean Slate Films. So Arora has now pushed the release of the film to 2 March (as declared by the teaser that released on 10 January). Nothing new — teaser/trailer/posters — from the Drive team has surfaced on social media so far. Drive is being helmed by Tarun Mansukhani and backed by Dharma Productions. Padmavat’s unexpected release created a ripple effect in the itinerary of many Bollywood releases lined up early this year. Gauging the buzz (read: controversy) around the Deepika Padukone starrer, makers of many films found it only wise to avoid any clash with the film. Bhansali’s period drama is based on the 13th century Rajput queen Padmini of Chittorgarh and stars Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh along with Padukone in leading roles.