Abhi-Ash ka 'health adjustment' season

It seems to be the season of health-based adjustments for Bollywood's first-couple Abhishek and Aishwarya Bachchan.

First, an important schedule of Mani Ratnam's Raavan got postponed because of the director's health scare (it's expected to resume any time now). And now the thriller tentatively titled Crooked, which Abhishek and Aishwarya were supposed to start this summer, has been pushed to the end of the year, again for health reasons.

Director Abhinay Deo was supposed to start Crooked immediately after his directorial debut. However Abhinay who's just wrapped up Delhi Belly for producer Aamir Khan has a seriousness illness in his family. Deo's wife has fallen ill, and the director suddenly needed to take time off to be with her thereby, throwing the entire Crooked schedule off course.

The project could've gone for a toss considering how busy the lead pair is and also considering the fact those huge amounts of date adjustment would already be required for Mani Ratnam's film. The other choice was for producers Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani to replace the director. However showing rare and heartwarming solidarity the producers and the lead pair decided to wait for the director to be emotionally capable of shooting the film.

Says producer Ritesh Sidhwani, "There was no question of replacing Abhinay. Crooked is his baby all the way. And we wanted to make it only with him. Fortunately, Abhinay's wife is now on the way to recovery. But he needs to be with her. Abhishek and Aishwarya have readjusted their dates. We now shoot in Greece, Istanbul and Thailand at year-end."

Incidentally the film won't be finally called Crooked. "We need a good Hindi title. And we've told the film's dialogue writer Anurag Kashyap to find one for us," says Sidhwani.