Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama drops its first poster of Ranbir Kapoor mid-drive with a bloodied arm, closing a release-date saga that ran through three different windows.
Love & War has a release date that's stuck, for now. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's production house put out the first poster on Thursday morning, and buried in the caption is the number everyone's been chasing since 2024: January 21, 2027.
That date has taken the long way round. The film was announced in January 2024 for a Christmas 2025 opening. That slipped. Reports then pointed to March 2026. That slipped too, without so much as an official statement. It took until April this year for Bhansali Productions to actually confirm January 21, 2027 in writing. Three windows, one film, and now a poster to show for it.
What the poster shows is Ranbir Kapoor behind the wheel of a bright blue vintage convertible, moustache on, shades on, white T-shirt, hair slicked back. Nothing about it screams war movie until you look down. His right arm is soaked in blood, wounds visible, the kind of detail that turns a retro glamour shot into something with teeth. The makers captioned it "Woh rutba, woh raub, woh junoon!" and added, "Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Love & War on 21st January 2027. See you at the movies!" DNA India reported the film will also get an IMAX release, which tells you where Bhansali's budget is going.
Three actors, three different Bhansali histories
The cast makes this one worth tracking beyond the poster. Ranbir is walking back into Bhansali's world nineteen years after his debut in Saawariya, which is a long gap by any actor's standard. Vicky Kaushal is on the set for the first time, no prior Bhansali credit to draw on. Alia Bhatt is the one repeat name here, back with the director after Gangubai Kathiawadi got her a National Award. That's a lot of history riding on one convertible.
Timing matters for two of the three leads right now. Ranbir has Ramayana releasing this Diwali, Nitesh Tiwari's mythological epic with Sai Pallavi, Sunny Deol and Yash, so he's about to be everywhere before Love & War even gets close. Alia's last outing was Alpha in July, which didn't work at the box office, and this is being billed as the film that puts her back in Bhansali territory where she's actually won awards before.
The poster doesn't give up any story details, and neither outlet reporting on it claims to know more than what's on screen. It's a period-romance set against a war backdrop, per the official billing, and that's about the extent of what's confirmed.
Next up is presumably a teaser or trailer, though the makers haven't signalled a date for that. Given how the release date itself moved twice before settling, nobody's betting on a fixed calendar here until Bhansali Productions actually announces it.
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