He’s teased us with news of his period drama Padmavati ever since the last awards for his earlier historical epic Bajirao Mastani came home, now Sanjay Leela Bhansali is finally ready with a theatrical teaser of his next big film. Sources close to the filmmaker say that the promo of Padmavati will be out on Friday, September 22. SLB is feverishly working day and night to complete it. He is determined that the promo hits the screens and virtual world next weekend.

Competitors of the filmmaker thought the recent series of setbacks to hit Padmavati might have dampened SLB’s enthusiasm. But the indefatigable filmmaker has bounced back with the promo and is now apparently even looking at how to get his film out in December if not November as initially planned. Sources said he might have talks with John Abraham to see if the actor-producer can delay the release of his Pokran nuke test film Parmanu to accommodate Padmavati in December. But there is no confirmation of that, yet.

“Currently he is been concentrating on finishing the shoot as soon as possible," the source revealed. Padmavati has been bedeviled by all sorts of tragedy including protests by a Rajput caste organization followed by an attack on the filmmaker and a fire that destroyed the sets and costumes to the recent Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) strike. But SLB has weathered all these storms.

Other info coming from the Padmavati camp is that Shahid Kapoor is left to complete almost 40 days of his shoot and for which the actor had to cut short a family holiday he had planned. Deepika Padukone, who plays Padmavati, has to shoot her songs, while a new set is being made to showcase the youth of Ranveer Singh’s character Allaudin Khilji. While trade pundits are skeptical about the film’s release this year, sources say that SLB though tense is sure he can pull it off.