Datuk Paduka Shuhaimi Baba (right) calling for Malaysians not to make baseless accusations and calls for boycotts about "Tanda Putera".

17 Aug – Following the amount of controversy surrounding Datuk Paduka Shuhaimi Baba's latest directorial feature, "Tanda Putera", the director herself has undertaken to address concerns about the release date, which was previously rumoured to see delays, and as of 15 August, it has been announced that the new release date for the historical film is 15 November.

"This date has been given to us by FINAS. The September 13 postponement is not an issue with us and we are happy with this new date. We believe that the start of the school holidays will be an optimum time for the film's release and allows more time to plan its promotion and we thank FINAS for taking this lead," said Shuhaimi Baba, who is fondly known as Shumi by her fans.

Aside from wanting to reveal the new release date for "Tanda Putera", Shumi held the special press conference to put the controversies and criticisms of the film to rest once and for all.

According to Shumi, there have been allegations that a prominent DAP leader has been featured in this film, which she reiterated, "is not true".

"Since the release of the film's 90 seconds trailer, many baffling false and baseless accusations have been made about the film on the Internet by those who have obviously not seen the film and are not the usual patrons of local films. Some have even gone a step further to ask for a boycott of a film they have not seen," the award-winning director exclaimed in disgust.

She added, "We will go to any lengths to defend our film because it is our right as filmmakers to do this and also because of the hard work by the producers and actors that have went into this film. Come on Malaysians, we are so much better than this. Don't stoop to such lengths to criticize a film just because others say so, or because it does not cater to your beliefs. It is a product of much intensive research."

The cast and production crew of "Tanda Putera".

"Tanda Putera" stars Rusdi Ramli, Faezah Elai, Zizan Nin and Linda Hashim and is set to be released on 15 November 2012. The film tells the story about Malaysia's second Prime Minister, Tun Razak (Rusdi Ramli) and his Deputy, Tun Ismail (Zizan Nin), their friendship and struggles in healing the nation after the riots until their untimely passing.