By: Mohnish Singh

After much speculation, it has been officially confirmed that Ranveer Singh’s much-anticipated film ’83 has been taken off the 2020 box-office calendar of Bollywood. After facing a delay in its theatrical release due to the outburst of the Coronavirus pandemic, the sports drama was expected to hit the marquee on Christmas 2020. However, its release has been pushed yet again. The film will now enter theatres in 2021.

Shibasish Sarkar, CEO of Reliance Entertainment, confirmed the delay and cited multiple reasons for pushing the release of the film to 2021, including lack of time to plan a promotional campaign as well as the closure of certain overseas markets crucial for business. In addition to ’83, Reliance Entertainment is also a producing partner of yet another big-ticket film Sooryavanshi.

“Christmas is no longer a possibility as we won’t be able to set up a marketing campaign within a month. Also, the overseas markets are important for both films and some of them have shut again due to the second wave of Covid,” he told an Indian publication.

Sarkar went on to add that the team is now looking at releasing both the films in between January and March. “We are looking at the January and March windows for ‘83 and Sooryavanshi,” he added.

Directed by Kabir Khan, ’83 chronicles the Indian cricket team’s unprecedented win against West Indies in the ICC Cricket World Cup 1983. Ranveer Singh will be seen as legendary cricketer Kapil Dev who was the captain of the men in blue in 1983. Deepika Padukone plays his wife Romi. The movie also stars Pankaj Tripathi, Boman Irani, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Saqib Saleem, Harrdy Sandhu, and Ammy Virk on its ensemble cast.

Sooryavanshi, on the other hand, is a cop-drama where Akshay Kumar heads up the cast along with Katrina Kaif. Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh will appear in important cameos. The film has directed by Rohit Shetty.