Abbas-Mustan's next seems to be going through a rough patch; date issues with the crew now cropping up

Director duo Abbas-Mustan's next project Race 2 seems to have hit a rough patch even before officially taking off. After mulling too much on the casting, now the shoot has suddenly been stalled. The entire cast and crew had gathered at Filmcity where the shoot began last week.

According to sources, what was supposed to be a longer shoot was stopped within a week.

Says a source, "The directors are busy promoting their film Players and also the leads Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone are both very tied up with their other films Agent Vinod and Desi Boyz respectively. Though the cast was all set for the shoot, there seems to be some date issues with the crew."

This is however not the first time the project has faced a speed bump. Saif was busy with his home productions, Cocktail and Agent Vinod, and so the directors were unable to lock the shooting dates for this film. There was also buzz about how the actor was giving priority to his productions over this film.

Adds the source, "Now that seems to be out of the way. However, with a huge cast including John Abraham and Jacqueline Fernandez, it's difficult to match everyone's dates."

Sonakshi Sinha, who was earlier cast for the film had also pulled out suddenly, causing further delay. The producers were willing to wait for Deepika's dates at all cost. The film was set to release in May next year, but will now release in December 2012.