Shilpa Shetty was first choice for Nagesh Kukunoor's next. Here's how the film went to his rakhi sister Ayesha Takia

While it is known that Nagesh Kukunoor's untitled next will feature Ayesha Takia, what isn't as known is that the film was offered to Shilpa Shetty and that she was also supposed to co-produce the film.

HiTLIST was the first to report last January that Shilpa Shetty had signed Kukunoor on.

The actress had inked a deal with the director to helm a film for her production house S2 Global Productions. He was also one of the few B-Town folk who attended Shilpa's wedding reception.

During the course of pre production, the two had a fallout over creative differences and eventually parted ways.

A source from the industry reveals, "The problem started when Shilpa insisted on having a big actor cast opposite her, while Nagesh wanted a lesser known face for the role.

Also it was a co-production, but the actress kept promoting herself as the sole producer, and credited Kukunoor as a director.

This didn't go down well Nagesh who then decided to end the deal and approached another producer and also roped in his favourite actress, his rakhi sister Ayesha to play the lead role instead."

The film being shot in Ooty will be Takia's first since taking a B-Town breather following her marriage to restaurateur Farhan Azmi.

While the actress and the director remained unavailable for comment, Shilpa's spokesperson says, "This is not true at all.

The project didn't work out because of commercial viability. Hence, we dropped it and parted amicably."