Farhan Akhtar isn`t exactly feeling on the top of the world. The provocation: Preity Zinta. The actress has left the whizkid director in the lurch by refusing to do a role that has been especially written with her in mind. The irony of the situation is that Preity`s decision not to do the Farhan film has been prompted by the director`s scriptwriter mother Honey Irani.

The latter is making her directorial debut with a film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Preity and she does not want her lead actress to suffer from divided loyalties. The Rajput girl`s friends recommended that she should reject Honey`s film in favour of her beta`s. But Preity being Preity, she kept everyone dangling till the last minute. On the day of the muhurat of Honey`s film, she did the disappearing act on the pretext of being "out of town", leading to much speculation. Was she doing Honey`s film or not?

That night she called Farhan to inform him about her decision to do the film with Amitabh, "It`s not because of Amitji and Anilji, it`s the role" she pleaded. While Farhan was still looking around for a replacement, Preity was off to Mauritius with Honey on a location hunt. That certainly isn`t what Farhan`s dil chahta hai!