Enter Ajay Devgan, Anil Kapoor, Suniel Shetty and Vidya Balan. Exit Pratik and newcomers.

Did someone say the recession is over? Far from it. Movies are religiously getting shelved, dumped and relegated to the backburner especially if they don't star A-listers.

The prolific Priyadarshan discovered it the hard way. He found out that star discoveries have gone of fashion with Dev Anand. After a very long time he was all set to make film with newcomers this July. But he has abandoned the idea now.

There were no buyers for a project with newcomers. The film about the longings, desires, loves and dislikes of the young was supposed to be cast completely with new faces along with Pratik Babbar.

The project couldn't go beyond Pratik.

Says the disheartened director, "I met only Pratik for the film. The other newcomers, I couldn't even get a chance to cast because the producers backed out. No one wants to back a project without stars."

To fill the time in July that Priyadarshan had allotted to the film with newcomers he has quickly put together a new multi-starrer which stars Ajay Devgan, Anil Kapoor, Suniel Shetty and Vidya Balan.

The prolific Priyan who starts shooting this quickie in July says, "I'm quite excited about this project. It's my first thriller. I needed to get away from my comedy image. Doing a thriller would provide me that chance."

In fact Priyan is none too happy with his latest release Khatta Meetha being pitched in the promotions as a full-on comedy.

Says Priyan angrily, "Khatta Meetha is not a comedy like De Dana Dan. It's a satire on the road mafia. You'll have to ask the producers why they're pitching it as a comedy. Probably because Akshay Kumar and Priydarshan equals comedy?"

Priyan seems resigned to resorting to stars time after time to get audiences in. "It's frightening how my attempts to make a film with newcomers were thwarted. If I can't do it who can? So the question is, how can we get new talent into cinema?"

Incidentally the young film is not the only Pratik Babbar starrer to be shelved. Goldie Behl's film starring the talented young actor which was to be shot in the monsoon at Mumbai has also been shelved.