A rumour is quietly doing the rounds of Bollywood over why Sanjay Leela Bhansali is taking his time over releasing Ranveer Singh’s first look poster from his December period drama Padmavati.

The filmmaker kick-started the film’s promotions on Navratri by releasing Deepika Padukone’s first look as Rani Padmini from the film on September 21st. It was, SLB said, an auspicious occasion. Three days later, he released Shahid Kapoor’s first look as the character Maharawal Ratan Singh, the royal consort to Rani Padmini.

The second poster did not create as much of a stir as the first. In fact, given the majesty of Deepika’s look and the opulence of the sets in the poster, poor Shahid’s poster paled in comparison. And the industry began to look forward to what SLB had in mind for Ranveer Singh who plays the role of the antagonist Allaudin Khilji in Padmavati. This, everyone knew, would be spectacular. Bets were being taken on when the filmmaker would release this poster. And it was more or less decided that Dushera, another auspicious date, would be D-day.

But Dushera has come and with it didn’t come Ranveer Singh’s look as Allaudin Khilji. Now people are beginning to wonder why. Surely Bhansali can’t be waiting for Diwali. That’s too far off. One trend of thought was that the filmmaker avoided Dushera because it clashed with Mohurram which is a day of mourning for the Muslim community. And though Ranveer’s character Allaudin Khilji is the Muslim ruler of the Sultanate of Delhi in Padmavati, Bhansali decided to be politically correct by avoiding the day for his poster.

Now comes the reason what people are saying is closest to the truth. The buzz is that Bhansali is peeved with Ranveer Singh for diluting the hype he was building around Padmavati by going ahead and announcing his 1983 World Cup cricketing biopic with Kapil Dev and Kabir Khan. Films and cricket are known to drive the nation. And the announcement of the film on India’s first World Cup victory (against West Indies at Lord’s in 1983) with Ranveer Singh playing Kapil Dev has excited the nation no end. People are talking about it. And sadly, the focus on Ranveer Singh as Allaudin Khilji has now slipped onto Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev. While Kabir Khan, who has had a bad 2017 with the disaster that was Tubelight, is smiling, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has no reason to. Trade sources say the filmmaker is waiting for the hullabaloo over the 1983 film to die down before he releases Ranveer Singh’s first look from Padmavati.