Ritesh Batra, Siddharth, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor

In September, mid-day reported that Ritesh Batra of The Lunchbox fame was readying to take his cross-cultural romance on floors with Anil Kapoor and the ‘Before’ trilogy star Julie Delpy (In India, after sunrise, Sep 12). But there is a twist in the tale. Sources tell us that the talks between Kapoor and Batra have fallen through, causing the filmmaker to hit pause on the project.

A source told mid-day, “Anil and Ritesh were excited about their maiden collaboration. However, scheduling has played a spoilsport. Ritesh was hoping to roll the film by September-end, but Anil and his dates could not be aligned. Ritesh would rather wait than compromise on any of the story’s aspects.”

Now, Batra has decided to focus on the Netflix series, ‘Unaccustomed Earth’, an adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s acclaimed anthology of the same name. The filmmaker, who will also serve as an executive producer, will helm two episodes of the Freida Pinto-starrer.

“A tender romance about a homemaker who meets her long-lost love, the story is right up Ritesh’s alley. The series has gone on floors and he is fully invested in doing justice to Lahiri’s story,” says an insider.

mid-day reached out to Kapoor’s team, who didn’t respond till press time.