Shirish has been working hard on the script of Tees Maar Khan since his last dud Jaaneman, starring Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan, sank without a trace. Insiders say the script of Tees Maar Khan was specially written keeping Shah Rukh in mind. However, after the course of events leading to differences between Shirish and Farah, they decided to rope in Akshay Kumar in place of King Khan. A source close to Farah and Shirish adds, “Shirish put his heart and soul into Tees Maar Khan, but after Shah Rukh treated him badly by asking him to direct The Zoya Factor and then passing it off to someone else without even telling him, Shirish began to keep his distance from Khan. Farah, however, maintained the same level of friendship with him, considering she had approached him for her ambitious next Happy New Year.”

So, what went wrong between Farah and Shah Rukh? The source explains, “Everything was hunky dory between Farah and him till Shah Rukh began to find unnecessary faults in Happy New Year and delayed the project by almost a year now. He made her edit the script several times, and she came to a point when she realized that he simply wasn’t interested in doing the film in the first place. Its understandable that Shah Rukh is more interested in working on Mani Ratnam’s Ra 1 and Farhan Akhtar’s sequel to Don, and wants to focus all his attention on these films. She soon roped in Akshay for the lead role in Tees Maar Khan, who is also a close friend and brother Sajid’s favorite actor and confidante. Akshay is even producing Tees Maar Khan under his home production, Hari Om Productions.”

Still, Farah had her inhibitions in roping Akki for the role, as audiences will obviously identify Shah Rukh in the title, but husband Shirish made her think otherwise. The source adds, “They have full trust in Akshay, as they know that he will take the script to an all-new level. He is a close friend, and they have a great working relationship with him." When Farah was asked whether Akshay is in her next Tees Maar Khan, she confirmed, saying, “Yes, it's true, Akshay is a part of Tees Maar Khan, and we are ecstatic to have him on board.” Shirish, who had earlier decided to direct the film, has passed the direction duties to wife Farah. He spoke on the matter, saying, ‘I had written this film with Akshay in mind and was initially planning to direct it, but when Farah and I formed our production company, we mutually thought it best that she direct this film while I take the responsibility of a producer. Akshay and I shared a great rapport while working on Jaan-e-Mann, and I have been looking forward to work with him again. This project gives me that opportunity.’