Vishal Bharadwaj postpones his next film with Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan

Filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj, who was supposed to kick-start the shoot of his next film starring Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan, has pushed the film owing to the health issues of the actors.

While Irrfan is down with jaundice, Deepika is dealing with a prolonged back problem.

"I am pushing back the film by a few months as both of my lead actors are down with different health problems. Irrfan is down with jaundice and it will take him a few weeks to recover, and Deepika Padukone's back problem, which had developed during the shooting of 'Padmaavat', has now resurfaced," Bhardwaj wrote on Facebook.

The shooting of the film was supposed to start in Nepal next month.

Besides the back pain issue, Deepika seems to be dealing with neck sprain. She was also spotted at the airport on Wednesday (February 21) with a bandaged neck.

Coming to Bharadwaj's film, he has made it clear that the film is not based on underworld don Sapna Didi's life. He, however, asserted that her story was initially a reference point for the subject. Produced by Prernaa Arora's KriArj Entertainment, the movie is an adaptation of S Hussain Zaidi's book Mafia Queens of Mumbai.

"I would also like to clear that the film is still untitled and is not based on Rahima Khan/Sapna Didi's life. Yes, it's a takeoff from the story 'Femme Fatale' from Hussain Zaidi's book 'Mafia Queens of Mumbai', but as we worked on this idea, the story and screenplay have taken on a new identity and shape which is nowhere close to the above-mentioned names. Hence, it's definitely not a biopic," he added.

While this is the Padmaavat actress' first movie with Bhardwaj, Irrfan would reunite with the ace director for the fourth time, after Maqbool, 7 Khoon Maaf and Haider. Irrfan and Deepika previously worked together in 2015 release Piku.