Actor-producer John Abraham’s film Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran has reportedly been pushed to early 2018 for release. The film was initially slated to release on December 8; however, it is believed that JA Entertainment will now postpone the film’s release to either February or April 2018.  And if sources are to be believed, the reason behind this decision is that Sanjay Leela Bhansali reportedly approached John to delay Parmanu so that his epic drama Padmavati might get a clear run in early December.

If this is true, then Bhansali is going ahead with a December release for his film as was initially decided before the filmmaker suffered a series of setbacks that delayed Padmavati. The filmmaker is reportedly keeping the release of Padmavati a secret and not even people on its sets knows when SLB will take it to the audiences. 

However, another source said that John’s reason for postponing Parmanu is not Padmavati. Some portions of Parmanu are still to be shot and that’s why John took a call to push its release further. “The film is very close to John’s heart and he wants to promote and release it on a big scale. Hence he decided to come next year,” the source said.

Pokhran is based on the successful 1998 nuclear test conducted in Pokhran, Rajasthan, during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government and which was masterminded by the then scientist APJ Abdul Kalam. The actor had recently unveiled the first poster of his film on Instagram. “So happy to bring you the first look of my biggest test ever,” John had captioned.

Parmanu has been majorly shot in and around Pokhran and has been helmed by Tere Bin Laden director Abhishek Sharma. The film features Diana Penty and Boman Irani in pivotal roles. John is producing Pokhran along with Prerna Arora’s KriArj Entertainments.