Chennai, Sep 23 (IANS): The makers of director Gunasekhar's upcoming mythological drama, 'Shaakuntalam', featuring actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu in the lead, on Friday announced that the much-awaited historical film would release on November 4 this year.

Samantha, who has not been very active on social media for the past few days, pleasantly surprised her fans by putting out a tweet that read, "November fourth it is. Thank you for the love. You have always been my strength.#Shaakuntalam"

The news is bound to delight scores of fans of the actress who were so eagerly awaiting the release of this film that they had begun demanding updates from the team.

The pressure was so much that the producer of the film, Neelima Guna, had to issue a clarification in August this year that post-production work on the film was progressing at a brisk pace and that the "challenging CG complexities were being dealt with good precision".

She had then asked fans for their support. "At this crucial juncture, the team deserves your support and understanding, which I'm sure you will shower on us. We will put out more content and updates as and when we can. Thank you for your love," she had said in response to a demand from several fans on an update about the film.

The film, which is based on the popular play 'Shakuntala' by Kalidasa, has Samantha playing the titular role and Dev Mohan playing Dushyanta.