Despite Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal, Pritam won’t be composing the music for Imtiaz Ali’s next film. The double Oscar-winning little big man from Chennai, A.R. Rahman, will be doing the music for Rockstar starring Ranbir Kapoor in the lead.

Pritam has delivered his biggest chartbusters for Imtiaz, from Mauja hi mauja to Ahun ahun, Tum se hi to Dooriyan. So is he hurt that Imtiaz chose Rahman over him for his new film?

“No, I was mentally prepared… I knew that if Rockstar ever happened, Rahman would do the music,” Pritam told t2.

Let’s rewind a few years. Imtiaz first planned Rockstar — after his debut Socha Na Tha — with John Abraham in the lead. UTV was the production company and they signed on Rahman for the music. Rahman composed a couple of tracks but the film got shelved.

Thereafter every time Rahman has bumped into Imtiaz, the music maestro has enquired about the status of Rockstar making it clear that he would like to be a part of the project whenever it took off again. Now that the film has been brought back from the dead, Imtiaz must have Rahman on board.

So will the new Rockstar follow the script of the old Rockstar? Our sources say most of it is the same but parts of the film have been updated with Ranbir in mind. The girl opposite Ranbir has not been finalised yet.

Kareena is a no-no because she is his cousin, forcing Imtiaz to look beyond his Geet. It’s supposedly a toss-up between Genelia D’Souza and Anushka Sharma with the Rab Ne girl said to have the edge.

Rockstar is about the life and times of a musician. The film should go on the floors by end-May and is scheduled for a December release. It is being co-produced by Eros and Shree Ashtavinayak.