The Nanavati case is causing heartbreak more than five decades after the true story of passion and deceit first captured the nation’s imagination. The love triangle and the murder that followed have inspired many celluloid spin-offs. Now John Abraham is set to star in and produce a film based on the 1959 incident but the news has left director duo Abbas-Mustan dismayed as they were set to direct a film on the infamous case for Shemaroo Entertainment.

Buzz is, before John decided to make this film, the director duo had offered the role of Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, the naval officer who murdered his British wife’s lover, to him. Abbas-Mustan spent months working on the script with writer Vipul (who goes by just his first name) before giving a narration to John, having zeroed in on Nargis Fakhri to play the wife. A source close to John confirmed that the actor loved the script. “He was very excited and told Abbas-Mustan that he would soon discuss his remuneration with Shemaroo,” he added. However, John’s demand for a fat pay cheque did not go down well with the producers. What followed was something that Abbas-Mustan will not forget anytime soon, reports Times of India.

John allegedly contacted Vipul and bought the script from him. Said a source close to the development, “It is difficult to establish whether it was John or Vipul who came up with the idea that John should produce the film. But it is clear that John had been in frequent touch with the writer after his meeting with the production house didn’t work out.”

Confirming the story, Mustan told Mirror, “We had worked very hard on the script with Vipul. We spent many spent months fleshing out the concept and were in talks with art director Nitin Desai to recreate the Mumbai of the late ’50s. We are very hurt with what happened but there’s little we can do about it now. All we can say is that we would have made a far better film.”

A source close to Shemaroo Entertainment also admitted that John quoted a huge amount and that was one of the reasons for their decision to not go ahead with the film. “There were other reasons too which made the project commercially not viable for us. We spoke to a few other actors too but things did not fall into place,” the source added. John remained available for comment.