(From left) Madhur Bhandarkar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and UTV head Ronnie Screwvala during the announcement of Heroine in Cannes in May

Calcutta, June 28: Not Salman Khan, not Vivek Oberoi, the man most upset with Aishwarya Rai’s pregnancy news is a certain Madhur Bhandarkar.

So much so that the director has decided to stop shooting his film Heroine, which was going to be the Bachchan bahu’s last film before she takes the mommy break.

The twist in the tale is that Ash wanted to complete the movie and had, in fact, “planned it that way”.

But it is Bhandarkar who doesn’t want to continue shooting with the pregnant actress. His Heroine — said to be inspired by the life of Marilyn Monroe — had to “smoke and dance and look svelte” and the mother-to-be might have had to give most of those activities a miss.

While Bhandarkar himself has gone underground, a source very close to him said: “Not just problems with the shooting, with Ash expected to deliver in November, she would have been unavailable for the post-production of the film and even the promotion. Madhur took a couple of days to see if it was possible to carry on with her but it’s looking impossible. So he discussed the matter with producers UTV and they have decided not to go ahead with the film.”

The official statement from UTV reads: “ At this point nothing is more important than Aishwarya’s well being and good health. In that context, we have all mutually agreed that the best step would be to avoid shooting further, rather than proceeding with an incredibly demanding schedule over the coming months.”

Well, the “mutually agreed” bit is not true, according to The Telegraph’s sources. Ash is quite upset that Heroine is being discontinued.

“She had given her dates till July 31 and it was always a start-to-finish 45-day schedule. The pregnancy was planned that way. The makers didn’t even discuss with her before stopping the shoot,” said someone close to the actress.

The dispute doesn’t end there. While UTV and Bhandarkar have supposedly been telling anyone ready to listen that around Rs 3.5 crore has gone down the drain thanks to the pregnancy, the Ash camp is quick to point out that the actress hasn’t been paid a single rupee for the seven days she has shot for Heroine. Incredibly, no contract was signed between Ash and UTV even though the film was announced at Cannes in May during the film festival.

Heroine was earlier offered to Kareena Kapoor but she didn’t like the script and only then Ash came into the picture.

Could Bhandarkar have waited for Ash to come back after delivering Baby Bachchan? It wouldn’t have been a first. Josef von Sternberg had waited for Marlene Dietrich during Morocco and Quentin Tarantino for Uma Thurman during Kill Bill.

But Bhandarkar, it seems, will move on to another heroine. Or maybe on to another project altogether, given the kind of labour pain his Heroine has given him.