The release of Talaash, Aamir Khan's big-ticket venture that many in the trade have touted as the most awaited film of 2012, has been postponed by six months. The film, scheduled to open on June 1, has now been pushed back to the crowded year-end festive season. According to a latest announcement, Talaash will now release on November 30.

The move has surprised the industry considering Abbas Mustan's multistarrer Race 2, featuring Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Chitrangada Singh, Jacqueline Fernandes and Anil Kapoor, is also scheduled to release on the same date as of now. Several other biggies including Yash Chopra's Shah Rukh Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer, Ajay Devgn's Son Of Sardar and the Akshay Kumar flick Khiladi 786 are also slated to open that month.

The official reason for the postponement is Aamir's inability to allot ample time for the film's publicity if it opens in June. He will be busy reshooting portions of his debut TV show, Satyamev Jayate, in mid-2012. "We have decided to move Talaash as Aamir's TV show has been postponed due to the recent fire on his set," tweeted Farhan Akhtar, who has co-produced the Reema Kagtidirected film with Ritesh Sidhwani.

A couple of weeks ago, the set of Aamir's TV show in Malad was completely gutted and the producers had no option but to re-shoot. The incident necessitated postponing the launch of Satyamev Jayate. A buzz doing the rounds, however, gives a very different reason why the film has been postponed. The film is a suspense thriller and many claim it bears a faint resemblance in the storyline of Kahaani, Sujoy Ghosh's Vidya Balan- starrer that released last week.

"Both films are about the protagonist arriving at a particular place in search of answers and to unravel a mystery. Since Kahaani has become a hit, Aamir could have felt from now to June 1 would be too less a time span for people to forget Kahaani. Aamir, a perfectionist, and only releases a film when he is fully sure of its box-office prospects," a trade source said.