Friday, 13th June 2014, 06:00 PM IST

Director Omung Kumar's ‘Mary Kom’, which has Priyanka Chopra in the title role, was scheduled to be released on October 2,but will be postponed to a later date.

This has been done in order to give the film more time and a more global appeal like ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’. This will leave the coast clear for Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif starrer ‘Bang Bang’ and Vishal Bhardwaj's ‘Haider’.

Priyanka has been working hard for the film and now the film is set to become a much larger bio-pic than before.

"The producers Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Viacom 18 took a joint decision last month to postpone the release date so that ‘Mary Kom’ could be further developed into another ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’. Viacom had unexpectedly massive global success with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’. They are now looking ‘Mary Kom’ as the female counterpart of Milkha Singh's bio-pic. The global appeal of Mary Kom is much more contemporary than Milkha. While Milkha Singh's bio-pic was retrospective in structure, Mary Kom is being made even as the real-life Mary Kom prepares for the next Olympics," says a source close to the project. 

A source who is close to the production team said that the project is now being formatted into two different versions,one for the Indian and the other for the international market with the Indian version being longer. 

"The version for the Indian market would have songs and more scenes showing Mary Kom's home life. These up-gradations in the original design of Mary Kom would take time. We're in no hurry to complete the film anymore," says a prominent source from the production team. 

The decision to pull out of the October 2 screening of the film was made after seeing the rushes, apparently. "There is a lot more being added to the film now. Director Omung Kumar has asked Priyanka to spend a lot more time with the real Mary Kom. The second-half of the film is being made much more dramatic and powerful. And the fights in the ring would be to die for," continues the source.