SRK says No to Hirani

Shah Rukh Khan may not do Raju Hirani's next. Is it because of the scathing remarks that producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra made on Paheli?

When Raju Hirani wrote Munnabhai MBBS, Shah Rukh Khan was his first choice for the role, but due to some reason, SRK did not do the role.

With Sanjay Dutt's future still in a flux, Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra kept the third part of the Munnabhai series aside and moved on to finalise SRK for their next, based on Chetan Bhagat's novel Five Point Someone. But the latest buzz doing the rounds is that SRK is not doing this Hirani project either.

The grapevine is that Khan is upset with Vidhu Vinod's unsavoury remarks against Paheli in the recent past (after his Eklavya was criticised for being India's official entry to the Oscars) and is reluctant to do a film with him. Vidhu Vinod had taken a dig at Paheli, saying that he had made no noise when Paheli was sent to the Oscars- thereby clearly hinting that the SRK starrer Paheli did not deserve the honour.

When contacted, SRK tells us, "I am not upset with Vidhu's comment on Paheli. I have no problems with anybody talking about films I do or make."

We probed further to confirm if he is doing Hirani's new directorial project. "It's not yet final," SRK says. "Saying yes or no to a film is a big process for me. It takes a lot of going back or forth on my part. So it does go through a lot of discussions. I wish I could get things done fast. As of now, I am discussing lots of films. I will be clear on it in a few weeks as I am currently busy with Om Shanti Om (which releases November 9) and Shankar's film Robot," he explains.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra remained unavailable for comment.

Vickey Lalwani, MumbaiMirror