Vivek is unhappy with his role in 'Mission Istanbul'

Reportedly, Vivek Oberoi is not too happy with his role in Apoorva Lakhia's upcoming film, Mission Istanbul. The latest is that Oberoi and Lakhia have fallen apart completely.

Now, Oberoi is not on talking terms with Lakhia, who gave him a new lease of life with Shootout At Lokhandwala at a time he most needed.

However, Oberoi has not stopped shooting with Lakhia and is completing the film in all respects. Says a source, "Oberoi is a professional and he is going through the remaining work on the film quite smoothly."

Talking about the equation between Lakhia and Oberoi reaching an all-time low, our says, "The problem started sometime ago when Oberoi suddenly started feeling that Zayed Khan has been given more importance in the film and its publicity, and thus, a cold war ensued.

Lakhia and Oberoi did not mingle much at an awards event held in Bangkok in the first week of June. The two also had a confrontation recently."

So, what exactly overturned the boat completely? Our source reveals, " Oberoi called up Sunil Shetty (co-producer of Mission Istanbul) to complain and that was the last straw.

He complained that he deserved more prominence in the publicity as he is a bigger star than Zayed Khan.

Naturally, Lakhia felt terribly upset at Oberoi's whining."

When contacted, Oberoi said, "I am shooting for my solo song (a follow up on Ae Ganpat song) on Apu's set at the Film City and we are having a blast."

Apparently wanting to safeguard his film, Lakhia was only slightly forthcoming. He said, "Mission Istanbul has two lead actors, and we are publicising it accordingly. Oberoi has not spoken about his discomfort to me yet."

We then contacted Shabbir Boxwalla (Director of Shetty's company, Popcorn Productions) who said that they could have even included Shetty in the publicity campaign since he also has a role in the film.

He said, "But Sunil didn't think that was necessary since his role is not a big one. Mission Istanbul is a film where both Oberoi and Zayed have equally good roles and hence they both are in every frame of the publicity together."

When told that Oberoi had complained to Shetty about his star status being sidelined, Boxwalla shot back, "Everybody is a star. You get to know the real star only on a Friday."

Mission Istanbul is being co-produced by Popcorn Productions and Balaji Telefilms.