Abhay Deol’s home production ‘Basra’ gets shelved

Spicezee Bureau

Mumbai: Blame it on its humongous budget that led to the shelving of Abahay Deol’s maiden home production. Buzz has it that as the co-producers and distributors of ‘Basra’, PVR backed out from Deol’s most ambitious project in the last minute, finding it a tad too expensive. ‘Basra’ was announced a year back, which boasted a stellar star-cast including Abhay, Chitrangada Singh, Shahana Goswami, Nikhil Dwivedi and Soniya Mehra. The film was to be directed by Navdeep Singh of ‘Manorama Six Feet Under’ fame. Talking about the sorry fate of ‘Basra’, a source said, “In spite of PVR arranging for meetings with Abhay to cut down on costs, the budget wasn’t really brought down. As a result of these constant delays, actors and their dates also went haywire and the movie was delayed indefinitely.” Apparently, the movie was scheduled to be shot at Basra, Iraq, but due to financial constraints, the producers decided to shoot it in Cairo and Dubai. When enquired Navdeep on the ‘Basra’ fiasco, he said, “There were issues, but I am not the right one to comment on it.”