Ayan Mukerji announces postponing Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt’s Brahmastra to 2020, says ‘hope we make up for the delay’

The release of Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt-starrer Brahmastra has been postponed to summer 2020, the film’s director Ayan Mukerji has announced. In a letter addressed to fans, he expressed hope that they’d make up for the delay by delivering a movie that the ‘country can really love and feel proud of’.

Sharing reasons for the delay, Ayan wrote in a letter addressed to ‘whomever it may concern at this point, people from our film industry and movie lovers who follow film news’, that ‘Brahmastra will now be released in 2020, and would not be ready in time for the originally announced December release.

Ayan wrote, “Brahmastra for me is a dream that began in 2011 and I’ve been actively pursuing it since Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani released in 2013. That dream is about creating a movie that offers our country something that’s really new and amazing and next level...in terms of story, character and emotions but also in terms of visual and visual effects.”

Also read: Alia Bhatt pleaded with Ayan Mukerji to cast her opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Brahmastra, says ‘he is like me’

Attributing the delay to labour-intensive visual effects work, Ayan wrote, “It’s been a long, long road to achieve this vision. When we broke the logo for Brahmastra at the Kumbh, we were excited that the end of the road is near, Christmas 2019...the date we announced for the release of the movie. But in the past weeks, I have learnt that teams working on the movie, lead by my VFX teams need more time in order to get the VFX right, to get the sound and music right, to get the film right.”

He continued, “With that in mind, we are moving away from Christmas 2019 as our goal for the release of the movie. Working towards that goal could affect the most important goal which is to create the best possible movie experience that Brahmastra can be! Our release date is now slated for summer 2020 but we will announce this once we are absolutely certain of the date. I believe that the extra time going into making the movie is essential to achieve the dream of Brahmastra , and I really hope we make up for the delay by giving our movie-loving country something they can really love and feel proud of.”

Salman Khan earlier announced that his much-awaited film Dabangg 3 will hit theatres on December 20, leading to speculations over a box office clash between the two films.

This is not the first time Brahmastra’s VFX-related problems have been written about. A Filmfare report earlier quoted a source as saying, “If Brahmastra doesn’t release in December 2019, it will be mainly because its shooting is likely to go on till October. After this, the sci-fi thriller will get into post-production, which may take longer because the film is heavily dependent on VFX. In the past, every movie with heavy-duty visual effects has had to keep a buffer period due to the nature of the work involved.”

Brahmastra is intended as the first film in Ayan’s fantasy trilogy. Meanwhile, Akshay Kumar has announced his film Good News, also starring Kareena Kapoor Khan will fill up the vacated slot, and will now release on December 27. The film was initially slated for a September release.

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