The film’s would-be producer Bobby Bedi maintains, "The film has not been shelved and we are going to shoot the film at some point." However, our sources confirm that the film has been done away with.

The problem started with Kareena opting out and Aamir getting busy with his other films including his directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par. However, producer Bobby Bedi has been citing other reasons for the oh-so-long delay. The film didn't hit the floors in December last year for reasons best known to the filmmaker. A source close to Ratnam says, "The film is definitely not happening. Even the actors have got busy with other projects."

According to an insider on the project, “Bobby Bedi was aware that bringing two hot-headed personalities together would be difficult. He had spoken to them separately about the possibility of creative differences and requested each one of them to be mutually respectful of each other’s responsibilities.”

So far, so good. Problems started with Mani Ratnam paying more attention to Guru and Lajjo, which was supposed to go on the floors last October, had to be postponed to this year.

Since the film is set in Rajasthan, Bedi and Ratnam wanted to shoot the entire film around winter in a non-stop schedule. The shoot was expected to begin in mid-October this year.

It is learnt that the screenplay was ready but Ratnam was not willing to get it scanned by the usually nitpicking Aamir Khan. And obviously, Khan wouldn’t go further unless he was shown the screenplay.