Amitabh and Vidya Balan both picked up Filmfare Best Actor awards when they came together in Paa, but writer-director Vibhu Puri's dream of seeing them share the same frame in his ambitious film Chenab Gandhi may remain just that - a dream.
Puri, who has written the script of the film, had teamed up with Sanjay Leela Bhansali to translate it into celluloid. But there's word that the two have had a fallout and the first casualty is their collaboration on Chenab Gandhi, says a media report.
So while Sanjay Leela Bhansali may still harbour a desire to go ahead with the film, there's little he can do since the story belongs to Vibhu Puri. Which also means that after he completes Guzaarish, (incidentally, Vibhu Puri also co-wrote this one), Bhansali will have to work on a new idea for his next.
It emerges that the bone of contention between Bhansali and Puri was that the director had finally run out of patience because the film was just not getting off the blocks. A source close to Puri says, "He waited for two years. Bhansali kept telling him that he would start Chenab Gandhi very soon, but Vibhu could not see much pre-production work being done. Finally his patience began to wear thin and even had a word with Bhansali about it. Now he's just taken the script and left."
Insiders insist that there was no heated exchange, and it was more a case of Puri, a 30-year-old FTII graduate, just deciding that he'd rather do without Bhansali than delay the film any longer. "But it is a fact that Bhansali didn't like the turn of events," added the source.
Those in the know vouch that Chenab Gandhi has had more than its fair share of hiccups. After Harman Baweja walked out of it, then something went wrong when John Abraham was approached. Finally, Rajeev Khandelwal was taken on board. Shooting for the film was supposed to start in September 2009, but the schedule was reportedly delayed because Khandelwal was busy with his reality show Sach Ka Saamna.
Sources close to Puri say that other producers have been sending feelers and have expressed interest in his script, but the flip side is that even if Puri does make the film with somebody else, he may not get the dream team of Amitabh-Vidya-Rajeev.
