Actor Tinnu Anand has cited date problems as the reason for opting out of Kamal Haasan's ambitious project, "Mumbai Express", which is to commence shooting here Nov 22.

Anand, who was to play the role of an insurance agent in the Tamil-Hindi bilingual, was eagerly looking forward to working with Haasan and director Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao after he had last worked with them in the critically acclaimed 'Pushpak'.

"But I could not give them the dates that they wanted," he said.

As of now, Haasan has confirmed Mahesh Manjrekar, Om Puri and Saurabh Shukla for the Hindi version, in which he will be playing the central character. The latter will also write the dialogues of the Hindi version.