IANS

Mumbai, Feb 13: There were reports that the title of "Tees Maar Khan" may go through a change as lead actor Akshay Kumar was not happy with it. But producer Shirish Kunder says the whole controversy was "fabricated".

"Perhaps pages were required to be filled in and a news around our film made for a spicy story. I guess someone just fabricated an entire article about Akshay being unhappy with the title," said Kunder about the film which will be directed by his wife, Farah Khan.

The filmmaker, who has earlier directed Akshay in "Jaan-E-Mann", said: "Do you know that most of the compliments that we have received so far on the film have been around the title? There is no point changing it since it truly reflects the spirit of the film. If it had to change, it would have happened by now."

Many felt that the word Khan in the title would indicate some kind of connection with one of the top 'Khan' actors, something that didn't quite amuse Akshay.

"How idle minded can people get? Arrey, when you spell a word in Hindi, it has to be 'Khan' and not 'Kha'. Now we can't have our title as 'Tees Maar Kha' which would then lead people to say '....maar kha', get beaten up.

"Come on, it's a plain and simple humorous title that conveys the real spirit of the film. Our intention is not to create any controversy whatsoever."

Kunder's debut production has been surrounded by controversies since it was announced late last year.

If Farah Khan opting for Akshay instead of Shah Rukh Khan wasn't a good enough reason to set tongues wagging, there was a toss up for the leading lady between Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra and Sonam Kapoor.

"Well, there were quite a few top names in consideration as well as newcomers. But then no one was approached per se. Once we decided that Katrina Kaif was the best fit, we finalised her, approached her and got her on board. It's as simple as that. Anything else that was said or heard was plain speculation," said Kunder.

Shooting of "Tees Maar Khan" will start March 1 and the filmmaker is planning to wrap it up by August.

Also starring Akshaye Khanna in a big role, "Tees Maar Khan" has music by Vishal and Shekhar and has already confirmed its global release date Dec 24.

This will be the first time in three years without an Aamir Khan film releasing on Christmas Eve. So this slot was up for grabs.

Christmas Eve releases in the last three years have been "Taare Zameen Par" (2007), "Ghajini" (2008) and "3 Idiots" (2009) -- all huge Aamir Khan successes.