Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh is baffled over a news report published in a daily last week stating that he is all set to make a film with Amitabh Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Aishwarya Rai and Farhan Akhtar.

"Isn't that old news? Didn't you break it months ago? Yes, I've signed Amitji for a film. And yes, I do want the others. But right now that project is far from my mind.

"I'm getting ready to release my 'Raincoat' with Ash and Ajay on Dec 24. The film has shaped up better than I expected. And you've to see the calibre of performance by my two actors. They couldn't have given me more. Ash has gone into a completely different area from 'Chokher Bali'," says Ghosh enthusiastically.

Coming back to the proposed project with Bachchan, Rai, Azmi and Akhtar - the film to be made in Hindi next year - will cast Bachchan and Azmi as husband and wife while Akhtar might play their son, if he can work in the dates.

But Farhan is committed to play another role in a film to be produced by his former assistant. He's also working on his next directorial venture whose casting will surprise the industry and the audience. (No it isn't Hrithik Roshan).

Ghosh wants to cast Rai as the other woman in the film. But the project requires a great deal of planning. "And I'm still working out the theoretical details. After 'Raincoat', I'll get busy with the release of my Bengali film 'Antar Mahal' with Abhishek Bachchan and Soha Ali Khan that is also complete. So I'm not even thinking about any other project right now."

Ghosh is upset about a report stating that Aishwarya Rai walked out of the screening of "Raincoat" at the Bangladesh film festival.

"She wasn't even there! It wasn't Ash who walked out in Bangladesh. It was me. And the film was 'Chokher Bali' and not 'Raincoat'. I walked out because they were screening a pirated DVD of my film. Can you believe it?"