Salman refuses to produce Rajkumar Gupta's film starring Bebo

No Sallu for Bebo this time

Ankur Pathak TWEETS @aktalkies

Salman Khan was to produce Kareena's next but has opted out

After Bajrangi Bhaijaan and the Hero remake, Salman Khan was all set to produce a film starring Kareena Kapoor in the lead. He had green-lit the project after a script narration. But owing to budget problems, he felt that it wouldn't be economically viable and backed out. Now director Raj Kumar Gupta, best-known for the Rani Mukerji-Vidya Balan-starrer No One Killed Jessica, is looking for another studio to finance his cinematic dream.

Revealed a source close to the development, "The script written by Ritesh Shah (Kahaani, D Day, B.A Pass) is outstanding but the film has to be mounted on a big scale.Salman's team had initially approved of the story but couldn't arrive at a figure agreeable to Gupta when it came to financing."

Amar Butala, COO of Salman Khan Ventures, didn't want to comment but Gupta told Mirror, "Yes, at one point we were talk ing to Salman Khan's banner to produce my film with Kareena Kapoor. But the deal didn't come through. At the moment, we are talk ing to other studios and one should come on-board soon." Ever since his last film, Ghankchakkar, bombed at the boxoffice, Gupta has been trying to put together a film. He was to make Revolution 2020 with Arjun Kapoor but had to leave the project following differences over the cast and with author Chetan Bhagat on whose bestseller the film is based.

Salman taken a sensible decision.A kareena solo film without big costar on a big scale only Saif should produce. Small budget movies work with heroines but not big scale movies.