Sajid and Fardeen fight over Riteish

Sajid Khan and his buddy Fardeen Khan are friends no more. They have fallen out over a film, no less. In fact, that's the reason why Fardeen is not in Sajid's next Housefull starring Akshay and Riteish. After the hit Heyy Babyy, Sajid would have repeated the star cast again, if all had been well.

Says a source, "Last year, when Sajid"s film Heyy Babyy! released, Fardeen was nowhere in the picture not even for the celebrations. He felt he had been given a raw deal in the film. FK felt Riteish"s role was better than his. He was very hurt and thought that Sajid had succumbed to Akshay"s star appeal and Riteish's friendship, and let him down."

The source says Fardeen was shattered. "He thought Sajid was a good friend but instead of lashing out, he withdrew from the scene in a dignified manner. Though his films Ram Gopal Varma's Darling and Heyy Babyy released almost during the same time, Fardeen went out of his way to promote Darling but wasn't seen for Heyy Babyy at all. FK was more upset because he didn't expect one of his closest friends to let him down so badly." Fardeen didn't even attend the music release of Heyy Babyy at Film City. He heavily promoted Darling at reality shows but chose not to speak about Heyy Babyy!

Sajid Khan denies the fall-out, "I haven't taken Fardeen for Housefull as there was no role for him. Fardeen couldn't come for the promotions as his dad Feroz Khan was having knee surgery in the USA and that's why he didn't feature in the song Mast Kalandar also, though he was supposed to."

Maybe Fardeen feels let down by Sajid because he"s been replaced by Riteish Deshmukh? Sajid says defensively, "I have known Riteish and Fardeen for the same amount of time. I have never been in touch with Fardeen every day but we do catch up once in a while. Just ten days ago, we met at the Marriott for dinner along with Riteish, Fardeen's wife Natasha, Sajid Nadiadwala and David Dhawan. In fact, Riteish, Milap Zaveri and I are known as coffee-shop friends as we hang out most evenings or nights at coffee-shops. That bonding was never there with Fardeen." Fardeen remained unavailable for comment.