Sorry no dates to spare for Aamir or SRK

There was great anticipation amongst Kishore Kumar fans some months ago when it was announced that a bio-pic was being made on the life of the legendary playback singer.

The news was that UTV would produce this mega budget film —which is to be directed by Shoojit Sircar and written by Renzil D'Silva (of Rang De Basanti fame) — and shooting was scheduled to start by early 2009.

But there is disappointment in store for the legion of Kishoreda fans — the production house has admitted that is has been unable to finalise the lead star.

Sources say that two of the industry's most saleable stars — Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan — were approached to star in the film, but neither have dates to spare.

"This will be a big film and they desperately want to cast one of the most marketable actors to play Kishoreda's role. They approached SRK and Aamir but have not been able to finalise anyone. The actors don't have dates for the next one-and-a-half years and this has upset their plans to get rolling by early next year," says a very reliable source.

The insider adds, "Since the film is important for UTV and Kishoreda's fans, they don't want to settle for anything less than the best. So they might just wait for one of these actors to give their nod to the film."

When contacted, Ram Mirchandani of UTV says, "Yes, it is true that we have sounded off a couple of our very good friends from the industry who are very big stars. But it is on a personal level. The film needs a superstar, no denying that, because the actor would have to portray the life of a multi-faceted genius."

However, Ram also blames the delay on the script, "What is really taking time is the script because we can't afford to go even an inch wrong about this legend. He had so many shades and we need to carefully research his life. A core team has been formed to do this and even Renzil and Shoojit are working to get all the facts right. So scripting will at least take eight to 10 months more. It is only then that we will formally approach the big stars to help us out by starring in the movie."

By that time they'll probably have the dates as well, we hope.