Pathaan director Siddharth Anand recently said that his team, including stars Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, will not be promoting the film before it releases in theatres on January 25.

Explaining the reason behind the decision, Siddharth said that SRK especially won’t be seen promoting the film at public events as the team wants to milk the superstar’s comeback to the big screen fully. SRK was last seen in the box office failure Zero, co-starring Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif.

“Pathaan marks Shah Rukh Khan’s return to the movies after 4 long years. He has had very limited exposure to people in these four years and the hunger to see him is at an all-time high. It’s palpable and that’s what has contributed in a big way to the buzz that people are saying Pathaan has today,” the director said in a statement.

Siddharth also said that Shah Rukh stands for so much love, and he wants his fans to experience SRK with that kind of fervour on the celluloid.

“SRK. Just these 3 letters spell so much stardom, so much love, and are just so iconic. The entire nation has loved him for so long and we are hopeful that our film will deliver on the promise to give a never-seen-before SRK to audiences. We want the euphoria around his return to reach a crescendo by January 25, the release date of Pathaan. Thus, we will start all our promotional activities only post the release of the film. We are all humbled to be receiving the unanimous love that we are getting for Pathaan so far and we can’t thank people enough!” said the director.

Pathaan has been mired in controversy. There was a lot of uproar by right-wing groups over Deepika donning an orange bikini in the song ‘Besharam Rang’. The film is also being boycotted by certain groups on Twitter.

Apart from SRK, Deepika and John, Pathaan also stars Ashutosh Rana in a pivotal role. The film will be released in theatres on January 25.