While Madhur Bhandarkar burnt bridges with the Bachchans when he aired his discomfiture over Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan walking out of Heroine, leading to the project being shelved, Rajkumar Santoshi didn't quite walk that path.
He decided to postpone his Ladies & Gentlemen for a time when both, Rai and Abhishek Bachchan will be available for the film.
Earlier, Santoshi's Power, another project with A- listers like Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Anil Kapoor also got shelved due to date issues.
Having had enough, he has now decided to make a new film about a love story with newcomers in the lead, something he hasn't done since 1995 when he cast Bobby Deol and Twinkle Khanna in Barsaat.
Santoshi said about this yet-to-be-titled project, "I'm doing a love story with two new faces. Even the villain will be played by a newcomer. The film industry needs a lot more new talent. Else we will have to continue depending on the same stars."
A source, however, was more forthcoming about the reason. He said, "Santoshi has had enough with stars. Two of his back-to-back films with stars have been troubled projects.
First, Power got shelved and now, Ladies & Gentlemen has been postponed." However, Santoshi makes it clear that he is not upset over having to postpone Ladies & Gentlemen.
"I was going to make it with another heroine. But then I thought, why deprive myself of the pleasure of working with someone so lovely? It is unfortunate that there has been some unpleasantness surrounding such a happy event (Aishwarya's pregnancy), " he said.