Bollywood's serial kisser is back!

Seems after a considerable gap, the pending song for Emraan Hashmi starrer 24x7 Raftaar, will finally be shot. But it remains to be seen if the actor will feature in it. Reportedly, the producers, Percept Picture Company has roped in the three finalists of IPL Miss Bollywood 2009, while Hashmi was keener on doing it with a known actress.

According to a source associated with the movie, “Initially, the song was to be shot at Maldives and Emraan’s dates were booked. But it was shifted to Bangkok due to financial issues. Then there was a disagreement over the girl. Percept wanted to take some new girl to save costs, while Emraan felt a known face would get better mileage.”

Disagreements?
Consequently, differences cropped up between Hashmi and Percept after they failed to sign a girl and utilise his dates for the song sequence. And if that wasn’t enough, they apparently even delayed his payment, resulting in his refusal to dole out more dates than committed.

However, now that the producers have signed the girls, Dune Kossatz, Genna Cloud and Dunay Nortje for the song, and are planning to shoot later next month, Hashmi is said to be non-committal. Although he admitted, “There was an issue earlier, so there was a delay,” he declined to go into the details, saying, “That’s best known to Percept. I was in touch with them for a couple of months, then I guess Shamim Desai, the director took over. He knows best when the songs will be shot.”

Tell him about the production company’s plans of shooting in August, Hashmi says, “Right now, I’m shooting for Once Upon A Time In Mumbai.. It’s a marathon spell and since I’m sporting a particular look in it, I can’t shift to the Raftaar look suddenly in the middle. When I had given them the dates, they didn’t shoot. So now I’ll have to sort out the dates again, since I can’t jeopardise Once Upon A Time In Mumbai. Although I won’t give second-hand treatment to Raftaar, I’ve to see that the other films don’t get messed up.”

Navin Shah, CEO, Percept Picture Company, too, brushed aside differences with Hashmi saying, “There weren’t any such problems really. 24 x 7 Raftaar is a glam film like Dhoom 2 and Race. Signing known faces for the songs would be too Bollywood and it’s already been done to death. By roping in IPL Miss Bollywood, we’re keeping the glam quotient intact.”

However, Shah is certain that Hashmi will allot the dates in the third week of August to wrap up the remaining three songs in a start-to-finish spell, despite his look for Once Upon A Time. “Agreed that Emraan is busy with his other films and is currently sporting a different look. It’s a creativity issue and we have to find a way around it.” Now, that will be confirmed by the end of August.