Fans of actor Aamir Khan, who waited four years to catch a glimpse of him in "Mangal Pandey - The Rising", may see his next film "Rang De Basanti" this year itself.

The buzz is that UTV has tentatively confirmed Dec 16 as release date of the Rs.300 million film.

"It is true that Dec 16 is one of the release dates being considered for the film, but we are yet to get a confirmation on this," said Sanjeev Mehta, vice-president (distribution) of UTV Pictures.

Aamir had stated in an interview that he would now have a release every eight months with "Rang De Basanti" followed by Yash Raj Enterprises' "Fanaah" directed by Kunal Kohli, which is scheduled to begin shooting in October and will be released next year.

The "Rang De Basanti" cast includes Soha Ali Khan, Alice Payton, Sharman Joshi, Madhavan, Atul Kulkarni, Om Puri and Waheeda Rehman.

Aamir sports a clean-shaven look in the film, completely different from the handlebar moustache and cascading tresses that defined his personality in "Mangal Pandey".

Designers reportedly experimented for nine months before they arrived at the longish haircut and clean-cut new look for Aamir.

UTV is also all set to start the shooting of its next film with Aamir, "Mr Mehta and Mrs Singh", in July 2006, soon after he finishes the shooting of "Fanaah".