Salman Khan's best friend Sajid Nadiadwala signs Shah Rukh Khan for his next film to be directed by Vishal Bhardwaj

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is to Salman Khan, what Karan Johar is to Shah Rukh Khan. They are like family. Salman and Sajid are like brothers. When the SRK-Salman battlelines were drawn, everyone picked sides.

It was clear if you were a friend to one camp, you were not welcome on the other side. But now Nadiadwala has signed SRK for his adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's Two States.

And everyone is waiting and watching if this will affect their dosti.

The film was earlier to star Saif and Priyanka and was to be directed by Siddharth Anand. Now it will star King Khan and a new girl, and will be directed by Vishal Bhardwaj.

Confirms an insider, "Sajid is producing Vishal Bhardwaj's film starring SRK. It's an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's Two States, and Sajid has bought the rights to the novel.

When the directors changed, Vishal approached Shah Rukh for a narration. SRK loved the script."

Around a week ago Sajid and SRK met and discussed the project. The source continues, "Shah Rukh spoke to Sajid from Berlin and they met after he returned.

The shooting will commence from mid next year."

In an industry where cliques are very clear, it is natural for Sajid's friends Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar to be upset with his decision to produce a film starring rival Shah Rukh.

Meanwhile it is learnt that Nadiadwala's film Kick starring Salman has now been postponed, as the film starring the Ra.One star goes on the floors first.

Shah Rukh Khan, Vishal Bhardwaj and Sajid Nadiadwala remained unavailable for comment.

About The Film

Two States is an intense love story between a young couple from two different states and is based in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

It will have Shah Rukh playing Krish (a young Punjabi guy from Delhi) while Ananya will be played by a newcomer as the girl is a South Indian one. Red Chillies, Sajid and Vishal are co-producing the film.

About the book

2 States The Story Of My Marriage is about inter-community marriages in modern India. It's the story of Krish and Ananya who are from two different states of India, fall deeply in love and want to get married. Their conservative parents don't agree, so to convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple stages a tough battle in front of them.

The fictional is said to be inspired from the real story of Chetan Bhagat and his wife Anusha who are from Delhi and Tamil Nadu respectively. Om Shanti Om

When Sajid Nadiadwala's Heyy Babyy released, the first song promo was with Shah Rukh Khan dancing to Mast Kalander, there were reports that SRK was miffed with Sajid.

Another rumour was that Shah Rukh was upset over the fact that the promos of Om Shanti Om were not showcased during the trials of Sajid's Heyy Babyy. But SRK, on reading the reports, had promptly sent a text message to Sajid stating that he wasn't angry at all about anything.

Farah Factor

Sajid Nadiadwala is known to be the moohboli brother of Farah Khan. He had organised her wedding to Shirish Kunder. Shah Rukh and Farah Khan had a fallout last year when FK claimed that the actor, who was to produce husband Shirish's film, delayed it.

Farah subsequently produced and directed Tees Maar Khan herself with Akshay Kumar and was cold- shouldered by Shah Rukh's inner coterie of friends. Farah and Sajid shared a history when Jaan-E-Mann (directed by Shirish Kunder and produced by Sajid) released. Shirish and Farah had alleged that the film fared badly at the BO because Sajid hadn't promoted it well.