For Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat, Best Wishes From Sonam Kapoor

New Delhi: Sonam Kapoor packed a pitara of best wishes for Padmaavat and sent it to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, with whom was her debut film. It was on Sunday evening that the film's team officially announced the release date of the much-awaited period piece to be January 25 - the film was previously postponed following vehement protests from several Rajput outfits. The previous release date which Padmaavat (previously titled Padmavati) was scheduled for was December 1. "I haven't worked with him (Bhansali) for 10 years since my first film released. I have been in touch with him. I wish him all the best for his film," said Sonam Kapoor, reported PTI. Padmaavat stars Deepika Padukone in the titular role (as Rani Padmini), Shahid Kapoor as Ratan Rawal Singh and Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji.

On Sunday, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, who is in charge of distributing the movie, revealed that the film will be released worldwide in Telugu and Tamil apart from Hindi. It appears, Sonam spoke to the news agency before the makers officially announced the film's release date, when she also added that: "I hope the film releases and I won't wish this (protest) on anybody."

Sonam was referring to the months of protests which Padmaavat encountered and all of which snowballed into a huge controversy, which lead Bhansali to take his film to the parliamentary panel to clarify that history has not been tampered with in his period piece. It was only last week when reports stated that after a detailed review, the Central Board of Film Certification finally cleared the movie for release on January 25. However, the movie remains banned from release in Rajasthan in light of the protests from several Rajput outfits. The Karni Sena previously threatened Deepika and the director with physical harm and said would burn down theatres if the film hit screens in Rajasthan. The Rajput outfits protest against the nature of portrayal of Rani Padmini's character.

Interestingly, Padmaavat clashes with Akshay Kumar's PadMan this January 25, which also stars Sonam Kapoor. Directed by R Balki, PadMan was earlier scheduled to release on Republic Day but following reports of Padmaavat's release on the locked date, PadMan too announced it was arriving a day before.

Sonam Kapoor, who made her debut with Bhansali's Saawariya in 2007, also worked with him before as an assistant director for Black in 2005. Apart from PadMan, she also has Veere Di Wedding and the Sanjay Dutt biopic in the pipeline.

(With PTI inputs)