The shooting of Dabangg 2 starts in December 2011

Abhinav Kashyap had not expected the success of Dabangg to have a flip side too. The director was caught in Bollywood crossfire - that between the industry's biggest rivals, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, as both actors were eager to work with him in their next projects. Salman wished Kashyap would start work on Dabangg 2 while Khan wanted him to start a film for Red Chillies Entertainment.

Kashyap reportedly went for a hush-hush meeting with SRK at his residence to discuss the proposition of making a new film and that's where Kashyap's dilemma began.

SRK asked the director to pen a mainstream potboiler. He told Kashyap that he would produce the film and act in it too. Meanwhile, Mumbai Mirror reported on February 9, 2011 that Kashyap and Salman had patched up and had plans of working on Dabangg 2.

What happened in the interim is unknown. What made Kashyap choose one Khan over the other? Speculations say that Kashyap decided to prioritise his commitments to Salman, the actor who made his debut film a super hit.

The issues Kashyap reportedly had with Sallu obviously went out of the window, we presume. Others suggest that Salman put his foot down in this matter and categorically told Kashyap, "It's my way or the highway".

Though Kashyap remained unavailable for comment, the million-dollar question is: how will SRK take to his marked preference for Salman? A source revealed, "The shooting of Dabangg 2 starts in December 2011.

As for SRK's film, he has still not been able to lock the script. The SRK project is still far away."

Source: TOI