When Harry Baweja decided to produce the desi version of the Hollywood film Cellular, he faced a tough challenge - beating the original to the theatres. But with Vikram Bhatt at the helm, they wrapped it up in good time, and titled it (what else?) Speed.


The first speed-breaker came in the form of Zayed Khan’s slipped disc. And when shooting resumed after a couple of months, sources claimed Khan slowed down the pace of the film. “The film began more than a year ago, and there’s still work left,” sources said.


With a cast comprising Urmila Matondkar, Aftab Shivdasani, Zayed Khan, Sanjay Suri, Amrita Arora, Aashish Chowdhry, Tanushree Dutta and Sophie Choudhary (all of who are ‘good friends’ of Baweja and Bhatt), it was believed there would be no date problems.


“Zayed had just recovered from the slipped disc when he had to go for the Rock Stars series of shows in the USA and UK. After returning, he gave preference to Rocky, which was mostly scripted by him,” sources said.


Post-Rocky’s debacle, Khan went to South Africa for Anubhav Sinha’s Cash.


Khan was unavailable for comment, but his business manager Rajkumar Tiwari said, “We have always given Zayed’s dates. Some work on Speed is left and as soon as dates of other actors are locked, Zayed will shoot too. He hasn’t delayed the film.”


Baweja said, “i don’t wish to begin the New Year with controversies. The film got delayed because of genuine reasons. First Zayed met with an accident, then Aftab was down with typhoid.”


Our source however said that Khan did not give dates at a stretch and that’s caused the delay.





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