Recession and the non-performance of his last film Aa Dekhe Zaraa have taken a toll on Neil Nitin Mukesh’s career.

Apparently the start-to-finish thriller produced and directed by Abbas-Mustan scheduled to start in June which featured Neil as the solo male lead has been “postponed indefinitely” which in filmy parlance means….the end.

The abortion of a reasonably big-budgeted high-gloss production has been sudden and unexpected throwing Neil’s schedule into a vacuum. So sudden was the decision to stop the slick quickie that it came as a surprise to the actor who’s currently shooting Jail in Karjat with Madhur Bhandarkar and was supposed to take a few weeks off to grow back his cropped hair for Jail for Abbas-Mustan’s film in June.

When contacted one-half of the directorial debut Abbas sounds a little unsure. “Yes the project with Neil has been postponed. We were supposed to shoot it at a 45-day stretch in May. That got postponed . Then June was impossible because it’s a film set on the streets of Mumbai. We couldn’t shoot it in the rains.”

The explanation sounds feeble. If the rains were a problem why was the schedule not planned accordingly?

Says Abbas, “It’s a subject very different from anything we’ve done. Very real and bold. We can shoot the film any time we want . At the moment we we’re busy scripting two films which we’ll announce soon.”

Sadly Abbas-Mustan is not directing any film this year. A tragic comment on the slump in the film industry. -Sampurn Media