Golmaal Returns is a movie which is red hot both inside as well as outside the industry.

Its Diwali release is expected to be huge, notwithstanding competition from Fashion and EMI and all eyes are on this Rohit Shetty film to take one of the best openings of this year. No wonder, expectations are sky high from this sequel to Golmaal.

However, there are questions around the exclusion of Sharman Joshi and Rimi Sen from the project. While Shreyas Talpade has replaced Sharman, Rimi Sen has made way for as many as 4 leading ladies - Kareena Kapoor, Celina Jaitley, Amrita Arora and Anjana Sukhani.

Why?

"Don't look for any controversies here because there aren't any", says Rohit Shetty who is keeping super busy as his film gets closer to the D-Day, "Sharman was originally supposed to be doing Golmaal Returns and he had said Yes as well.

We had to shoot the film in Goa last December and had dates from everyone else. After December, it was difficult to get combination dates from other actors since Kareena had to shoot for Tashan in January, Ajay had to leave for U Me Aur Hum, Arshad was occupied with Shortcut and so on."

What happened to Sharman's dates then? "To everyone's disappointment, Sharman's secretary informed that he didn't have any dates available in December.

He had to report for Dilli 6 which was planned around that time but because of one individual; we couldn't have juggled around with dates of so many other actors. We had to take a call and this is how Shreyas stepped in", reveals Rohit.

But today, Sharman isn't a part of Dilli 6! "Yes, he did come back eventually as he wasn't doing Dilli 6 anymore", nods Rohit, "However, by that time Shreyas was on board and it would have been unethical to replace him. It was one of those scenarios where we couldn't do anything."

What about Rimi? She did eventually walk away in the sunset with Tusshar in Golmaal, isn't it?

"This was exactly the reason why we couldn't have enhanced this character further", says Rohit, "We wanted to make a series of Golmaal rather than a sequel per se.

If Rimi was present in the film, she would have had to be Tusshar's wife and that would have required us to take his family angle forward. We didn't want to do that since it would have continued the same storyline. Golmaal Returns is a series with four boys and hence we retained the boys but not Rimi."

Talking about his heroines in Golmaal Returns, Rohit acknowledges that Kareena's character is one of the most important in the film.

"My other three leading ladies would make their presence felt too. Celina has a good role to play, that of a South Indian girl. In the film she is not wearing revealing clothes or busy seducing people. Lengthwise, her role may not be the same as Kareena but importance-wise, it is."

How about Anjana and Amrita? "Anjana has relatively lesser screen time but in the second half of the film, especially towards the climax, she is hilarious in her own way. On the other hand, Amrita's character in the film is that of a totally dumb girl. You have to see it to believe it."

Rohit is quite confident about the prospects of Golmaal Returns. "We have been unpretentious in declaring that Golmaal Returns is not your classic-in-the-making. It is not a great film.

It is a 'masala' film and we are preparing people to expect the same when they walk into the auditorium. Our entire promotional strategy is centered on suggesting that Golmaal Returns is a hardcore commercial entertainer and a solid time pass at that."

So one should not be expecting drama or emotions, right? "Perfect", smiles Rohit, "The film is truly slapstick with no drama, no emotion-baazi and no seriousness.