In November 2020, Shah Rukh Khan returned on the sets with Sidharth Anand directed Pathan co-starring Deepika Padukone. The film has been shot majorly at Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai and the team is planning to use modern day technology to merge the footage at real locations. It has been almost 14 months since it went on floors and one hears, around 25 days of shoot is still pending.
“Pathan has been a taxing film for everyone as despite all the planning, the shoot kept getting delayed for some reason or the other – ranging from Covid scare to issues in personal life to the injuries,” a source informed Bollywood Hungama, and added that the team is now looking to wrap up the film by March 2022.
“If Pathan is wrapped up by March, Yash Raj Films will take around four to five months to complete the post production process and release the film only by the end of 2022. And this in turn is resulting in the delay of Salman Khan’s Tiger 3 release too co-starring Katrina Kaif. The Maneesh Sharma directorial can’t release until the arrival of Pathan, as the two stories are interlinked,” the source explained and added, “So while Tiger 3 shoot started in March 2021, it was planned as a film that will arrive 3 months after Pathan. The shoot of Tiger 3 was more or less uninterrupted with minor delays caused by 2nd wave. The film will now be wrapped up by January 2022 and since it’s shot at real locations too, not much needs to be done on the VFX front. The makers can have the final edit of Tiger out by Summer 2022, but the catch lies in Pathan.”
As things stand today, Aditya Chopra is planning to bring Pathan on October 2 and Tiger 3 on Christmas, but only time shall say what happens next. Another delay in the release calendar of already announced films might change everything as both the biggies could even be pushed to 2023. “Adi is ethical and believes that films long in waiting deserve a shot at release before the ones that went on floors in the middle of pandemic. So he will wait and watch.”
Meanwhile, the delay in Pathan has already impacted the shoot plans of Sidharth Anand’s next directorial, Fighter with Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone.