Tough time for Katrina Kaif are refusing to end. Her skirt controversy at Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti's shrine at Ajmer was barely over when the petite starlet got another shock from her mentor Ram Gopal Verma.

Verma had announced that Katrina is no longer playing Radha in his Sholay. According to insiders, Ramu was unhappy with Kat's diction and asked her to opt out of the film.

We also hear that the maverick director is already in talks with Sushmita Sen for the role.

Katrina, however, cites dates problem as a reason of her exit from Sholay.

She says, "I'm not doing the film because the dates are causing too much of a problem. I had signed Sholay a long time ago, and now all of a sudden the dates have changed, so it isn't working out for me.

"I am busy with Anees Bazmi's Welcome, Vipul Shah's Namaste London and David Dhawan's Partner, and don't have dates for Ramu Ji's film right now. But I do wish Ramu the best."

Ask her about her diction problem and she adds, "I don't think Ramu would ever have had a problem with my accent. I'm doing roles which need more emphasis on the diction and language. David's films have long dialogues and funny lines, which I have done. So it's completely untrue."