Mumbai, Feb 7

Plans of hosting a lavish premiere of "Patiala House" in Mumbai and London later this week have been put off in favour of a new venue - Patiala. Thanks to the initiative taken by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the event has been shifted there.

"Yes, we are shifting the premiere to Patiala on the Punjab CM's request. It will be held at the SRS Cinema in "Patiala on February 10. Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Akshay Kumar, Anushka Sharma and I will be flying down to Patiala for the premiere," said the film's director Nikhil Advani.

Apparently the minister happened to meet Akshay at a function in Punjab last week and the two got talking about "Patiala House", which is releasing Friday.

"Parkash Singh Badal wondered why the premiere of 'Patiala House' should not be held in Patiala. Isn't it the most logical thing in the world to have premiere of 'Patiala House' in Patiala? Akshay and director Nikhil Advani were stumped. Within minutes everything was decided," said a source.

Incidentally while Akshay and Rishi, who are playing Sikhs in "Patiala House", are full-blooded Punjabis, the film's leading lady Anushka is not a Punjabi but is often mistaken for one.

"I don't know if the Punjab CM thinks Anushka to be a Punjabi. But at the moment we're all Punjabis including me (actually a Sindhi)," said Advani.