Here’s the big story of ‘Dostana 2’ that’s doing the rounds and ETimes has got it first. It is known that Kartik Aaryan is not doing ‘Dostana 2’ and Karan Johar is hunting high and low for a replacement. But did you know that 60 per cent of the film has been already shot and several crores have been spent on it? And did you know that Kartik didn’t want to do the film because he had a big fallout with Janhvi Kapoor?

The story goes that Janhvi and Kartik’s friendship ended sometime in January and thereafter, Kartik allegedly started being difficult. He kept procrastinating on the dates and consequently, the shoot kept getting delayed. Sources say, Kartik was mighty upset about the rift with Janhvi so much that one day he told Collin D’Cunha (director) that they should rather make something else, other than ‘Dostana 2’. FYI, Janhvi had completely stopped talking or communicating with him.

D’Cunha, we guess, almost fell off from his chair and naturally went to Karan saying that Mr Aaryan says that they should scrap the film.

Sources further say, Kartik had by then suggested to Team ‘Dostana 2’ that he’s ready to continue on the film but if they drop Janhvi! We hear, the ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ actor was even ready to adjust his ‘Dostana 2’ fees if Karan would make another film with him! Those who knew all that was happening behind the scenes, were, to say the least, shocked.

At this point, Karan felt that he had to take a call; he decided that he had to do something drastic as the situation was getting out of hand. After a certain amount of deliberation, he came to the decision that he should drop Kartik from the film rather than drag the problem, whose solution was nowhere on the horizon at least. Replacing Kartik meant a reshoot and a hike in the film’s budget but Karan went ahead with it.

This is how Kartik went out of ‘Dostana 2’. But, there are no permanent enemies and friends in Bollywood and hence, who knows, Kartik, Janhvi and Karan might work together after a few years. However, a patch-up in the near offing seems unlikely.

Several names are being whispered as to who will replace Kartik- Akshay Kumar, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, Rajkummar Rao and Siddhant Chaturvedi. Let’s see if it will indeed be someone from this lot or some surprise waiting at the post.