/> Recession and the non-performance of his last film Aa Dekhe Zaraa have taken a toll on Neil Nitin Mukesh's career.

Apparently the start-to-finish thriller produced and directed by Abbas-Mustan scheduled to start in June which featured Neil as the solo male lead has been "postponed indefinitely" which in filmy parlance means....the end!

The abortion of a reasonably big-budgeted high-gloss production has been sudden and unexpected throwing Neil's schedule into a vacuum.

So sudden was the decision to stop the slick quickie that it came as a surprise to the actor who's currently shooting Jail in Karjat with Madhur Bhandarkar and was supposed to take a few weeks off to grow back his cropped hair for Jail for Abbas-Mustan's film in June.

When contacted one-half of the directorial debut Abbas sounds a little unsure. "Yes the project with Neil has been postponed. We were supposed to shoot it at a 45-day stretch in May. That got postponed. Then June was impossible because it's a film set on the streets of Mumbai. We couldn't shoot it in the rains."

The explanation sounds feeble. If the rains were a problem why was the schedule not planned accordingly?

Says Abbas, "It's a subject very different from anything we've done. Very real and bold. We can shoot the film any time we want. At the moment we we're busy scripting two films which we'll announce soon."

Sadly Abbas-Mustan is not directing any film this year. A tragic comment on the slump in the film industry.