Saif Ali Khan was supposed to act in a film to be produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions, but now the actor has now excused himself from the project.

Saif, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai had been finalized to play main roles in the film. But now, Saif has opted out because he doesn't have the dates to spare.

The yet to be titled film will mark the directorial debut of Karan's assistant Tarun Mansukhani, who has been working with Karan since ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'.

Presently, Saif is shooting for Abbas Mastan's thriller ‘Race'. After this, he will begin shooting for Yashraj Films' ‘Tashan'. And next, in September-October, Saif will start shooting Kunal Kohli's next movie with Rani Mukherjee.

Mansukhani, too, has plans to shoot his movie in October, but Saif had already given his dates for that period to Kunal Kohli's film.

Apparently, Karan Johar understood Saif's situation and did not pressurize him to do the movie. Rather, Johar has a plan to make another film with Saif sometime early next year.