Ram Gopal Varma's new action thriller 'Department' may not be ready for release as scheduled for May 18

With barely a month left for its release, apparently, Ram Gopal Varma's forthcoming film is far from nearing completion.

Firstly, because its climax scene is to be re-shot while a song that features Sanjay Dutt also remains to be filmed.

Sanjay Dutt and the corporate production house are said to be not very happy with the original climax. And apparently instead of Ramu, his assistants will now film the sequence along with the camera crew.

Sources at the processing laboratory tell us that they haven't got the film for digital imaging yet.

"Considering that there is talk of re-shooting the climax apart from the song, it remains to be seen when we finally get the film," said an insider, adding that after the shoot, post-production of those portions can't be completed in a day or two either.

Another source associated with the film tells us that the required permissions to shoot the climax in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali have been acquired along with a couple of talkie scenes at a juvenile home in Matunga have been acquired.

"Sanjay and Vikram Malhotra felt that the climax was looking haphazard. So it will be re-shot over three days under the aegis of action director Aijaz Gulab," he said, adding that the additional shoot is going to cost between ` 50 to 75 lakh.

Apparently, Ramu was also missing in action when Sanjay's scenes at an Irani café in the city were re-shot earlier this month.

"With the shoot pending, it's too much of work for them to meet the deadline," concluded our source.

However line producer Dharam Oberoi maintains, "It was not a re-shoot but patchwork shoot of certain portions because Sanju felt the resolutions in those scenes were not good enough."

He adds, "The release date of the film stands as fixed and I won't budge come what may."