All of Chennai was abuzz with the shocking suicide attempt of producer Khwaja Mohiuddin who, according to his close associates, was mired in monetary crises.

Last week the producer ended up in hospital after a suicide attempt, laying the blame for his plight on all the people with whom he had undertaken business transactions.

The needle of culpability pointed primarily to Kamal Haasan, the leading man of Mohiuddin's next venture, a thriller called "Vettaiaadu Vilaiyadu" to be directed by Gautam Menon (the man who introduced Madhavan into Hindi cinema in "Rehna Hai Terre Dil Mein").

It was whispered that the producer wasn't able to obtain dates for his film from his leading man. "Not true at all," Kamal who has just wrapped up his first Kannada film.

"There was never any doubt about my dates. The producer's plight had nothing to do with me, or my film with him. He has his hand in many hot pies. He was bound to burn his fingers. If we hadn't started the film as yet it was only because the script wasn't ready. Now we're ready to roll."

Menon is one of the youngest and most untried directors that Kamal would be working with. But Kamal quipped: "Not true, I've worked with a pretty young and untried director called Kamal Haasan in 'Chachi 420' and 'Hey Ram'!"