Sidharth Malhotra took his shoes off before he took his blessings. On Tuesday, the actor walked barefoot into Mumbai's Lalbaugcha Raja pandal alongside producer Ektaa Kapoor, days ahead of the trailer launch for their film The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest.

Videos from the visit are already doing the rounds. Sidharth showed up in a cream and red ombre kurta with cream trousers, Ektaa in a red salwar suit. Inside the pandal, both bent down and touched their heads to the idol's feet, the kind of moment that plays well on Instagram Reels regardless of intent, and this one clearly had intent behind it too.

Ganesh Chaturthi and film promotion have found each other again. Lalbaugcha Raja pulls crowds and cameras every year during the festival, and a producer walking in with her leading man three weeks before release is not exactly subtle. It doesn't need to be. It's Ektaa Kapoor's film, after all, and Balaji Motion Pictures knows how to work a calendar.

The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest has Sidharth in the lead with Tamannaah Bhatia opposite him. The supporting cast is stacked in an odd, interesting way, Anup Soni, Shweta Tiwari, Durgesh Kumar, Sunil Grover and Maniesh Paul all in key roles. That's a thriller with a comedy bench, which tells you the film isn't trying to be one thing.

Before any of the actual footage, the team put out a comic book, The Legend of Vvaan, to build out the world the film is set in. Not the usual poster-and-song rollout. Whether that's a smart bet on genre curiosity or a sign the marketing team is reaching for anything that isn't a trailer, we'll know soon enough.

Both leads are coming off recent work. Sidharth was last seen in Param Sundari. Tamannaah just wrapped the Prime Video show Do You Wanna Partner. Neither is exactly starving for visibility right now, which makes the temple run less about need and more about ritual, and about timing a festival crowd into a box office countdown.

The trailer is expected shortly. The film itself opens in Indian theatres on September 25, giving Balaji Motion Pictures a little over a week between trailer and release to turn festival footage into ticket sales.