Ahead of his maiden tryst with Yash Raj Films, actor Salman Khan has already caused a tittle-tattle in B-Town. Even before Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger goes on floor, the film has been delayed. And according to hearsay, it is the Dabangg star, who postponed the first schedule of the film, which was apparently set to start on July 5.

Buzz has it that Salman’s upcoming film, Bodyguard, co-produced by brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri required extra dates, so the actor’s next, Ek Tha Tiger, has been delayed. Yash Raj Films’ spokesperson, Rafiq Gangjee, confirms that the film has been pushed, but merely by ten days and not a month. “Yes, we start shooting on August 10. The schedule has shifted due to our own production requirements. It has nothing to do with Bodyguard. We have always had our production schedule,” says Rafiq. Salman Khan

Sources close to Ek Tha Tiger add that they were set to hit the floors from August 1. “But since we need to shoot for only a few days in August, we can afford to reshuffle the dates a bit. We will start the main outdoors only in September. And we want Bhai (Salman) to start absolutely fresh. So we want him to take a week-long break because it doesn’t make sense to start shooting immediately after Bodyguard,” adds the source.

For the uninitiated, Bodyguard is touted to be a big Eid release, following suit of Salman’s past hits like Wanted and Dabangg that too were released during the festive season. When asked if Bodyguard is running behind schedule, Atul denies it. “It’s not true. We are on track to complete and release our film as per schedule. We were always supposed to finish our film by the end of this month. In fact, I am happy that we have managed to be on track for the release. So there’s no question of needing extra dates for my film.”