J P Dutta, who has made several war movies, finds himself facing a crisis. The filmmaker has apparently been pursuing the Ministry of Defence for months to get the necessary permissions to start the shoot of his war epic.

Says a source, "He has spent the last two years of his life travelling between Mumbai and Delhi to meet Defence Ministry personnel. His last war epic LOC Kargil was released nine years ago, and he would've started his next war epic right after it. However, he wanted to get the proper permission from the Ministry of Defence."

That is when, apparently, Dutta's ordeal began. "For the first time in his career as a director, he wrote the entire screenplay because he was told it was needed by various sections of the Defence Ministry. He normally shoots with an improvised script.

This time he made an exception, but to what avail? His attempts to change the 'red tape' into green have made him go blue in the face," adds the source. He has also finalised the dates of his key actors Abhishek Bachchan, Suniel Shetty, Jackie Shroff, Vinod Khanna and Akshaye Khanna (the two Khannas are to play father and son for the first time in a movie).

Sources say Dutta is now on a do-or-die mission, and plans to start filming his war epic by the end of the year with or without the relevant governmental approvals. The director known to be impatient with delays has now exhausted his patience.

Says a source, "The film is about how war brings the unlikeliest of companions and allies together. It's a tribute to patriotism. How ironical that he is now forced to consider shooting it abroad."