Director Rajkumar Hirani has said that actor Sanjay Dutt had shot for his portions in the upcoming film ‘Peekay’ before going to jail last year to serve his remaining term in the 1993 bomb blast case.

“He has already shot for his portions before he went (to jail),” said Rajkumar Hirani to PTI.

The movie that was earlier scheduled to release in June this year will now be released during December this year.

There have been talks that the release of the movie has been pushed back to December as Aamir Khan, who features in ‘Peekay’ and is also one of its producers, is busy with his TV talk show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ whose second edition went on air last Sunday.

But Rajkumar Hirani cleared the air and insisted the reason for putting off ‘Peekay’ release was because Aamir Khan’s movie that released during Christmas then year. Aamir has had successful Christmas releases--from ‘Ghajini’, ‘3 Idiots’ to last year's ‘Dhoom 3’.

“There was no particular reason to delay the release of the film ('Peekay'). Most of Aamir's films release during Christmas and they have done well," Hirani said.

“Actually I needed a month more. Though we wanted to release the film in June but then we thought Christmas is perfect to release the film," he added.

The director also said that festive season was the best time to release a movie.

“It is festive and holiday time and more people tend to watch films during this period," said Hirani.

"Moreover, every filmmaker wants more people to watch his film. So keeping the festive season in mind, we are releasing the film on Christmas," he added.

‘P.K.’ is a political satire film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Aamir Khan.

The movie stars Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani and Sanjay Dutt in prominent roles.

Aamir Khan’ son Junaid makes his debut as an assistant director in this movie.

The movie will release on December 25.