Filmmaker Shree Narayan Singh’s surrogacy drama Jasmine has been put on hold as “things were going downhill from the start,” he said while speaking to a leading daily. The script of Jasmine was narrated to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan but she hadn’t confirmed the film and had asked for alterations in it. No update was provided on the project ever since and now, Shree has told the daily that Jasmine isn’t materializing any time soon.

Jasmine, based on a surrogate mother's bond with her child, is supposed to be directed by writer duo Siddharth Singh and Garima Wahal while Shree will be producing it. The project, in fact, got delayed as Siddharth and Garima were preoccupied with the screenplay of Shahid Kapoor’s Batti Gul Meter Chalu, which has been directed by Shree.

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"Things were going downhill from the start — actors were announced before the script was ready. Then Siddharth-Garima got busy with Batti Gul Meter Chalu (that Singh has directed). As a result, Jasmine kept getting pushed. The film is not happening in the near future,” Shree told the daily.

Earlier this year, Aishwarya made headlines as reports claimed that she had signed Jasmine but at an event in May, she clarified saying that she had asked the makers to “take it for a rewrite” after the script was narrated to her. Jasmine, Aishwarya had said, was announced before she confirmed it. The makers’ decision, thus, to delay the film comes after Aishwarya’s demand for the changes in Jasmine’s script.

Meanwhile, several quarters also suggest that Jasmine could have been put on hold due to reports of its plot being similar to that of Karan Johar’s Good News, starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Akshay Kumar in the principal roles. Responding to rumours as such, Shree said, “This subject can be approached from multiple angles.”

As of now, Aishwarya along with her husband, actor Abhishek Bachchan will appear together onscreen after a hiatus of eight years in Anurag Kashyap’s Gulab Jamun. Aishwarya was last seen in Fanney Khan.